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SMRT Buses, originally Trans Island Bus Services (TIBS), is a public bus transport operator in Singapore. Singapore has a duopoly transport system in which SMRT's only competitor is SBS Transit, which also operates bus services in Singapore. The company was incorporated as TIBS on 31 May 1982, in a heavily regulated market, to be a competitor to Singapore Bus Service. In accordance with restructuring at parent company SMRT Corporation, TIBS was renamed "SMRT Buses" on 10 May 2004. ==History== In 1982, the company ran with a fleet of 37 buses and two services, Service 160 (later renumbered Service 980) and Service 167. Later, more services were handed over to them by the government along with the tender to operate services in the northern region, mainly Yishun and the developing Woodlands. In 1995, as part of the government's plan to make the local bus system more competitive, 16 SBS services were handed over to TIBS Holdings (TIBS) along with the tender to operate bus services in the north-east corridor, mainly the developing towns Sengkang and Punggol as well as Bukit Panjang. In 1996, TIBS began operations at the Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange, Singapore's first underground bus interchange. It was also the first bus interchange designed to accommodate articulated buses. TIBS used articulated buses, some of which were designed by world-renowned designer, Pininfarina and was known as the Habit articulated buses, on a large scale in its fleet, in contrast to the double-deckers used by Singapore Bus Service (SBS). In 1999, SBS Transit was awarded both bus and train services in the entire north-east corridor with the North East Line, Sengkang LRT and Punggol LRT by the Land Transport Authority, both based in Sengkang. Eight bus services affected in the bus tender of Sengkang and Punggol were transferred to SBS Transit respectively.〔 In return, TIBS was awarded to operate bus services in the north-west corridor towns of Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok, where the handover was done in stages.〔 TIBS and SMRT first held talks for merger in 1999, which turned out to be unsuccessful. The second round in 2001 resulted in an agreement for SMRT to buy TIBS at $194 million. In 2004, the merger was completed, and TIBS adopted the name SMRT Buses to reflect their merger with SMRT. On 26 November 2012, 170 bus drivers (all of whom are foreign nationals from China), refused to leave their living quarters for work. This reduced bus services to 90% of normal levels. The Ministry of Manpower considered it an illegal strike since the group failed to give a 14 days notice prior to disrupting an essential public service, as is required by the local laws. As a result, 5 of the strikers were jailed for instigating the strike, and another 29 were deported.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 No-show by SMRT's bus drivers an "illegal strike": Tan Chuan-Jin )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 SMRT strike situation explained to Chinese embassy: Tan Chuan-Jin )〕 On 23 April 2013, the Land Transport Authority announced that a new Bulim bus depot will be built by the authority itself. It will be located off Jurong West Avenue 2. It will be the first depot that LTA is developing and funding, as part of the review of the enhanced structural assistance that Government is providing the bus industry announced in Committee of Supply (COS) 2012. The depot is intended for SMRT Buses Ltd, to accommodate the additional buses that it is bringing in over the next few years. The operator’s existing bus depots and bus park are reaching full capacity, and the new facility is necessary to support the higher number of buses as the overall bus capacity is progressively increased under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP).〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=New Bus Depot To Support Bus Fleet Expansion Under BSEP )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SMRT Buses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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