SINGAPORE - Five new City Direct bus services will be launched progressively from September.

They will operate from Marsiling, Woodlands, Pasir Ris, Tampines East, Simei, Yew Tee, and Yishun to the Central Business District (CBD) during the morning and evening peak hours.

"With fewer stops and the use of expressways, journey times for City Direct Services will be comparable to that of taking a bus or LRT and transferring to the MRT into the city," said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Private operator Bus Hub Service will run the two services from Marsiling/Woodlands and Yishun. There will be three trips on weekday mornings towards the CBD and two return trips from the city in the evenings.

Aedge Holdings, another private bus operator, will run the other three new services, from Pasir Ris, Tampines East/Simei and Yew Tee. There will be two trips on weekday mornings towards the CBD and two return trips in the evenings.

Bus Hub Service was awarded the contract for about $3.14 million, while Aedge Holdings, at $5.41 million.

Together, the five new services will join the existing 10 City Direct routes which have been rolled out over the past two years.

These serve commuters in Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Bukit Batok, Hillview, Eunos, Hougang, Jurong East, Jurong West, Sembawang, Sengkang, and West Coast.

The LTA also said it will call a tender in July 2015 for five more City Direct services, which will operate from Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Clementi, Dover, Punggol, and Yishun to the CBD.

These services will be launched progressively from the fourth quarter of 2015.