I believe that if SBS Transit and SMRT merges, it may be forced
to compromise and use both double-deckers and bendies alongside
standard buses. This is not an entirely bad thing though - I have
noticed high-load bus routes on either side being forced to use
standard buses because of this or that restriction, and that they
don't have the type of bus necessary to get around it (for example,
the height restrictions along route 105, and the requirement to
u-turn on the old route 804 before it was amended via a new road).
In fact, I have seen a photo of SBS 999(U?) on route 105 somewhere
before, but I'm not sure if it's one of those posed
photographs.
And, besides seeing what can only happen now in our fantasy
(imagine: Volvo B10Ms on 851, Dennis Lances on 133, Volvo B9TLs on
961, Mercedes Habits on route 18 
), I can see that a lot of bus
routes will be rationalised, akin to what happened in the 1970's
when the three bus companies became one under then-SBS. Most
likely, sets of somewhat-related routes operated by the two
companies (like routes 27/34/39/85/89/109/161/168/858/965/969 - all
of which are north - north-east - east routes to some extent) will
get very major changes, or might have some of their routes even
withdrawn.
The reality, though, is that an SBS Transit-SMRT merger looks
unlikely for now. SMRT's predecessor, TIBS, was set up to provide
some friendly competition originally, and commuters, while
demanding for more integrated services, have also been calling for
more competition. Even if both companies were to merge, it could
very well happen under a plan to liberalise the public bus sector
in Singapore, so the resulting situation could be one large company
(SBS Transit + SMRT) dominating the public bus sector alongside
with smaller companies competing with it.
