It is indeed a waste that the Citaros get registered and put to
storage, while the old buses get lifespan extension due to
"insufficient buses". LTA should have planned ahead to register the
Citaros earlier just in time for DM3500 retirement.
Not sure if there are anymore plans to introduce more new
services for the next 3 months. As for the Seletar package, I
believe that there are still plenty more of non-BSEP fleets to
be redeployed on the affected SBST services and by then
more non-BSEP fleets can be spared out to HG/BB to replace the
DM3500s, nearing the Seletar takeover date.
they need the new citaros for the seletar package (spare
fleets)... so no choice have to extend lifespan for some of the
DM3500.....
there is not enough BSEP buses for SBST to go around, that why
they have taken some new buses (1202-1207, 1231-1240 plus a few
other) while sending some citaros/kub to HG/BB... the balance new
bsep citaros (sv18/298/137 etc) should be coming over to AMDEP in
january...
as for the DDs, there is around 70 units left and i think 20-25
units should be for seletar package...so left only around 40+
units.
So if they dun extend the lifespan of some bendies retiring in
Dec and take in account additional buses needed for JK-GC shuttles,
there wont be enough buses, unless they have make decision to order
new DDs now.. but there isnt any news of new DDs orders.