Reuters - 2 hours 51 minutes
ago
Singapore to open
public bus sector to competition
SINGAPORE, Jan 18 - Singapore intends to open up its bus service
sector to more competition following a review to improve public
transport, the government said on Friday.
This could raise the number of bus operators in the city-state from
the current two, ComfortDelGro's 75-percent owned SBS Transit and
rail operator SMRT , which is 54-percent owned by state investor
Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL].
"There are limited economies of scale for bus operations above a
fleet size of 500 buses. Hence, our current bus industry of about
3,700 buses could potentially support more than the current two
operators," Transport Minister Raymond Lim said in a speech to
announce the results of the year-long review.
Lim said the intention is for operators to compete periodically for
the right to provide bus services, adding that these operators
"will have to fulfil service obligations or risk being replaced
when their term is up".
The introduction of competition will be implemented after another
year or so of studies, Lim said.
The review will also change the way bus operators plan their
service networks, putting the decision into the hands of the
government.
SBS Transit currently operates more than 2,800 public buses while
SMRT has 860.
The government in 2003 liberalised Singapore's taxi industry by
issuing new licenses to private operators, ending the duopoly also
held then by government-linked ComfortDelGro and SMRT.
But ComfortDelGro continues to dominate the industry with about
16,000 of the 23,000 taxis plying the city-state, while SMRT has
3,000 and four other private operators split the remainder.
