Go-Ahead won Tampines bus contract on quality despite higher bid; most services now improved: Jeffrey Siow
Go-Ahead Singapore's proposal was strongest in plans to manage large-scale electric bus operations and maintenance, says the transport minister.
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SINGAPORE: Go-Ahead Singapore won the Tampines bus package despite submitting a higher bid than incumbent operator SBS Transit because its proposal scored highest in quality, Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow said on Tuesday (Oct 6).
Mr Siow was responding to a parliamentary question posed by Workers' Party Non-constituency Member of Parliament Eileen Chong on Go-Ahead's S$646 million (US$505 million) bid for the Tampines bus package against the lowest bid of about S$596 million.
Ms Chong asked about the weight given to quality and price, how the shortlisted bidders ranked on quality and overall score, and what quality factors justified the price difference between the bids.
Mr Siow said the quality-price weightage for the Tampines bus package was 60:40. Go-Ahead received the highest score in quality and the highest overall score.
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SBS Transit’s S$596 million bid was the lowest, but it had the second-highest overall score after quality was taken into account.
"The other bids by Tower Transit Singapore and SMRT Buses were higher priced and scored lower in quality than SBS Transit’s bid," said the minister.
Go-Ahead took over 27 bus routes in Tampines from SBS Transit in July after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded it the S$646 million contract last year.
Residents subsequently complained of longer waiting times and bus bunching, with some saying their daily journeys had become less predictable.
Go-Ahead Singapore said in September that it had deployed more employees on the ground in Tampines to support its bus captains and commuters during the transition period.
BUS SERVICES IMPROVED
The Tampines package was the first tendered bus package involving large-scale electric bus deployment, Mr Siow said.
As a result, greater emphasis was placed on the bidders' plans to manage electric bus operations and maintenance at scale.
"Go-Ahead Singapore’s proposal was strongest in this regard, based on detailed plans to transfer knowledge and operational experience from its sister company’s electric bus operations in London to Singapore," he said.
Mr Siow added: "Since the initial transition period, where Go-Ahead Singapore faced teething issues as it took over operations, the reliability performance for the Tampines package has improved."
"As of end-September 2026, the reliability of most of the bus services in the package have now matched or exceeded the performance under the previous incumbent."
Mr Siow acknowledged that performance on some routes could be further improved and said LTA was working with Go-Ahead to address these issues.
The package was put up for tender in December 2024 and drew bids from SBS Transit, SMRT Buses, Tower Transit Singapore and Go-Ahead.
LTA previously said the proposals were evaluated through a two-envelope process, with quality assessed before price submissions were opened.
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