Quality of bus services depends entirely on our workers, Jeffrey Siow says at Tower Transit 10th anniversary carnival

Workers are at the core of successes with bus services in Singapore, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow said at Tower Transit's 10th anniversary carnival on Saturday (June 27).

The carnival, which is being held at Bulim bus depot from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturday, aims to celebrate 10 years since Tower Transit arrived in Singapore in 2016.

The event also saw the unveiling of new uniforms for staff as well as various activities for families, ranging from magic shows to a bus wash experience.

Speaking at the event, Siow reminisced how Singapore used to only have two bus operators.

"The system worked, but we wanted more - a bus network that was better connected and more reliable, reaching more corners of Singapore, serving more Singaporeans.

"We wanted bus companies that not only competed on how well they put commuters first, but more importantly, how well they take care of their workers."

In 2015, Tower Transit became the first public bus operator to join SBS Transit and SMRT after three decades, commencing operations in May 2016.

Since then, Tower Transit has grown to run over 70 services and more than 800 buses, and has around 1,800 staff across Singapore, Siow said.

"The quality of our bus services is entirely dependent on our workers, both in terms of bus captains, but also those doing maintenance," he added.

Because the government recognises this, it has been working with operators such as Tower Transit to improve the well-being of workers in the bus industry.

In particular, bus captains will be receiving a $450-a-month increase in their starting salary from January next year, while first-year sign-on bonuses will be increased by $2,000, according to a joint statement by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) and the four public bus operators on June 3.

Explaining this decision, Siow said that the sign-on bonus works to draw in new bus captains, while the one-time salary adjustment aims to "keep the jobs as good jobs that pay fairly".

Siow also said that he has been working closely with LTA to expand the bus network in Singapore.

Since 2024, 35 bus routes have been introduced or extended, and more than 60 bus services have been enhanced with more buses or better frequencies, he stated.

He added: "My objective as minister is to better serve Singaporeans who stay in HDB estates further away from the city with buses.

"We will always want to have more buses and a larger network. But how well we achieve this objective ultimately depends on how many bus captains we have."

@asiaone Speaking at the 10th anniversary of bus operator Tower Transit's operations in Singapore, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow paid tribute to the role of bus captains in keeping public transport moving. #sgnews #Singapore #PublicTransport #Bus ♬ original sound - AsiaOne

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