SINGAPORE - A new bus depot will be built in Yishun Avenue 8 by 2029, as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) continues to renew and replace bus infrastructure.
The agency called a tender on Feb 2 to construct a multi-storey bus depot in the Simpang area. Occupying a 5.6ha site next to a heavy vehicle carpark opposite Yishun Industrial Park, the new depot will be able to house 500 buses, LTA told The Straits Times.
The plot of land, which previously housed a foreign worker dormitory, was vacated in 2019 and rezoned from a reserve site to one for transport facilities in August 2022.
LTA said the new depot will comprise a four-storey main building, multi-storey quarters for transport workers, and other ancillary buildings.
The main depot building will have facilities for daily bus operations, bus repair and maintenance, bus parking and electric bus charging. Solar panels will be fitted on the roof.
Construction of the new depot is expected to start in 2024, and it is slated to open in 2029 to support buses operating in the northern region.
LTA said the new depot in Simpang is a replacement depot, but did not specify which existing bus depot it will supplant.
This new bus depot is the third LTA plans to build by 2029, along with two others in Pasir Panjang and Lorong Halus.
Construction of these two depots will also begin in 2024.
LTA said in August 2023 that the new Pasir Panjang bus depot will have a seven-storey main building that can house 550 buses, as well as staff quarters for workers.
To be built on the site of the former Pasir Panjang Distripark in Harbour Drive, it is expected to support buses operating in the southern region.
The Pasir Panjang depot will have electric bus chargers and rooftop solar panels, similar to the Simpang depot.
In December 2023, LTA called a tender to build a depot in Lorong Halus on a 6ha site in Serangoon River Road.
The four-storey depot will house 550 buses and serve as a replacement for the eastern region, LTA had said.
There are five other new bus depots that are in varying stages of construction.
Depots in Sengkang West and Gali Batu are expected to be completed in 2024, while a depot in East Coast is expected to be ready in 2025. Bus depots are also being built in Kim Chuan and Tengah, and are slated for completion in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
LTA said the new bus depots are part of efforts to ensure that bus operations continue to be well supported, especially as Singapore replaces its mostly diesel-powered public bus fleet with cleaner-energy vehicles by 2040.
The new depots will also “contribute to the resiliency of our public transport network”, LTA added.
There are currently 14 bus depots and bus parks in operation. Of these, Ang Mo Kio bus depot, which opened in 1978, is the oldest. Mandai bus depot, which started operations in 2020, is the newest.
Under Singapore’s bus contracting model, which was adopted in September 2016, all public buses and related infrastructure, including depots, are owned by the Government.
They are parcelled out to be managed by bus operators that are appointed and paid to run bus services at standards that LTA sets through a competitive bidding process.
Under the contracting model, bus services are bundled into 14 packages by geographic area. Each package typically comprises about 20 to 30 bus routes, a bus depot and several bus interchanges.
