Under the contracting model, I don't think LTA will buy buses
for specific operators, they will make purchases based on their own
decisions, and would distribute the buses to the operators based on
the contractual agreements and operational needs of the areas they
serve in, it is similar to what is being done in London
(Borismasters only), Perth and Adelaide. And even under the BSEP
scheme, LTA wasn't the one who made the fleet decisions, as they
simply funded part of the orders SBS and SMRT made.
Off topic: The last sentence is why I think sgwiki is
inaccurate. They have terms such as BSEP Batch 1, 2 and 3 for the
B9TL Wrights. The fact is the BSEP buses are part of the same
orders as the regular buses, ie 3300-3329 are actually Batch 2
Wrights; 3330 to 3448 are actually Batch 3 Wrights and 3449 onwards
are Batch 4 Wrights, all of which were allocated as BSEP Buses. Of
course you would know that there is no batch 1 Wrights that are
under BSEP. The body numbers and to a large extent, the VINs
confirm this.
Then I have came across "batch 4" MAN A22s on another website I
can't remember. Unless SMRT has made an announcement about it,
there is no such thing as yet. Apparently someone treated the Voith
A22s as another batch, they are not. Officially, as of today, there
are only 3 batches of A22s purchased by SMRT, whether or not the
specification of the gearbox specification changes does not change
this fact. Always check the official press releases (if there are
any) before putting up the info.
Reason: There was a similar
situation 10 years ago here where a bus fan created his own
designation for a certain type of bus with a different body from an
earlier batch of buses and rumour was that the manufacturer wasn't
too happy about it as it led people to think that they had a new
product. Similarly, these cases could lead people to think that a
bus company has made additional orders when there were
none.
Base on their own decisions? Ya?
That's why the whole point of my post was LTA should have buy
JUST Citaros (and Wrights) for BSEP for both operators at start.
Since there's some who wants to keep the no. of models low
here...
I think you misunderstood at start..
"And
infact, if LTA wish to standalise, they should order BSEP
Citaro for SMRT rather than MAN~ even better~~
"
"RATHER THAN" ... nobody is saying that they
should buy more SDs now...
