new SMRT Buses from may (finally)

the 1st wave will have 66 standard length omnibuses from Mercedes Benz (EvoBus). If SMRTB exercises their option, another 66 buses will join the fleet.

information from SGforums, photos from a person called "TIB1018B" and information from another person called "sv966". Present bus photos from another guy called "TIB1224Y" (sorry to use it without permission). Lots of funny names here, sorry.

this time round, a Malaysian based company (Gemilang) is providing the wheelchair-accessible bodywork for the Mercedes chassis. Gemilang also provided the chassis for SBS Transit's 500 units of Scania K230UB. So, expect the general design to be similar. Means, lesser seats compared to conventional buses.

due to regulatory requirements, the bus emission standard is Euro V. As mentioned, it is also wheelchair accessible (WAB), which is the first for SMRTB. However, even if SMRTB exercises their option to bring the total order to 132, it is still below the 40% WAB requirement mandated by LTA.

with the entry of 66 buses, i hope SMRTB will

1. increase the frequencies of key trunk services - 61, 67, 171, 190, 851, 960, 963, just to name a few

2. introduce more basic (read: not $3-4 express) services that serves the northern sector of SG

(photos courtesy of TIB1018B)

If SMRTB chooses the TIB registration plate, the range will be
TIB 1258 A to TIB 1323U if the order is followed

Yeah, just to contrast the front.

Looks like the current Volgren-SMRTB fleets

Yup, looks very close to SBS Transit's WAB

technical specifications (courtesy of sv966):

- Chassis: Mercedes Benz OC500LE

- Engine: OM 457/906 hLA, Euro V

- Airconditioning: Konvekta (Denmark)

- Electronic destination sign (EDS) system: LAWO/LLE (Denmark), orange LED

The previous batch of LAWO EDS used in bendy buses are going to unreadable soon - the top section was cut off, the flip dots were covered in dust. The bendy bus in the previous post uses Transit Media, much cleaner BUT the flip dots are laggy.

The 300 is cropped.

Both are not nice. Hope this batch will be sealed to prevent dust from accumulating.

- Minor stuff: classic rectangular cool air vents similar to the Habit bendy buses, red/black chairs, on-board and alighting voice announcements (imagine DOORS CLOSING. tu tu tu tu tu tu), no driver window, blah blah blah. The rest you can experience them in May.


once again, thanks to the various copyright holders. Hope you are generous enough to allow the usage of the photo(s), for the good of the public =p