Name: The Unseen Side of Singapore’s Bus System | Singapore Hour
Uploaded: 2025-08-30T15:04:55.000Z
Duration: 11 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Every morning, before the city wakes, buses are already on the move.

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They pass through neighbourhoods, heading into the city as the day begins.

Connecting people, places and daily routines, one journey at a time.

Singapore's bus system spans the city, with over 360 routes and 5,000 stops.

It's designed for reach, frequency and flow, with most buses running on time, almost to the minute.

But it took years of change to build a system that is as efficient as possible.

Singapore's first buses were privately run in the early 1900s, small, noisy and prone to breakdowns.

Nicknamed Mosquito Buses, they made up most of the bus services up till the 1960s.

Operators ran different routes, some in the city centre, others on the outskirts.

There were plenty of buses, but no system to bring it all together.

Over the decades, the government restructured the system, consolidating operators, standardising routes, upgrading the fleet and introducing central planning.

What began as a patchwork of services became a coordinated network across the city.

So, in the morning, I will reach, I will report my duty, then the dispatcher will deploy me with a route for me to do.

Peng Hian is a bus captain, a title that reflects how the role has changed.

Normally, people will think that a bus captain is a bus driver that ferries passengers from point A to point B.

Actually, in Singapore here, we do more than that.

We have to take care of the passenger safety, we have to take care of the situation safety on the road.

Peng Hian powers up the systems, checks the exterior, then walks the cabin for one final look.

Once he's on the road, the focus only sharpens.

Buses are big, you have a lot of blind spots.

So, constantly, you have to look after the blind spots and the system.

With so much to watch, it helps to have backup.

The mobile eye system monitors lanes, tracks nearby vehicles and pedestrians, and flags the speeding.

It's designed to catch what the driver might miss before it becomes a problem.

Not every day is easy, but he keeps going for the familiar interactions and the people who remind him why he does this.

On the road, bus captains respond to what's in front of them, traffic, timing and whatever the day brings.

But behind the scenes, another team is watching the bigger picture.

They track live data, adjust routes and keep the network in sync.

When something goes wrong on the road, the call often comes here first.

At the Bus Operations Control Centre, controllers like Sam keep an eye on every bus route, tracking delays, road conditions and how crowded buses are.

From his screen, he sees how it all connects.

Spotting the issue is just the first step.

The challenge is reacting fast, rerouting services, alerting ground teams and keeping things on time.

As the bus captain waits at the scene, Sam's already working through options, checking nearby buses, finding a detour and assessing how this might affect other buses down the line.

It sounds simple, but these are split-second calls based on experience, road knowledge and the pressure to get it right.

Because every second passes by, things may get worse.

We need to react very fast to make a decision and what action we take will affect any commuters on the road.

Moving buses across the city is one challenge.

Singapore is gradually replacing its fleet with electric and hybrid buses.

But switching to electric isn't just about the vehicles.

It means new infrastructure, new workflows and new ways to keep things running.

At another depot across the island, technicians are already getting to work.

Shahrul has been a bus technician for eight years.

In the last two, his focus has shifted to maintaining Singapore's growing fleet of electric buses.

From braking systems to high-voltage wiring, everything needs checking.

Technically, I'm looking out for any abnormalities on the wire harness or any AC, DC motors or any problems on it.

Inside each electric bus are multiple battery packs that contain many battery cells.

Their temperature and charge are tracked constantly to ensure the bus runs reliably.

If anything looks unusual, it's flagged early for maintenance.

Once the bus is on the road, the checks don't stop.

Built-in systems with remote diagnostics track performance in real time, even while passengers are on board.

Technology helps, but some checks still need to be done on the ground.

Under the bus are some of its most important systems.

Brake lines, suspension and high-voltage cables.

Shahrul looks for cracks, corrosion or signs of wear.

Things that could put the whole vehicle out of service if missed.

Of course, it's a cleaner and greener future.

There's no smoke, so the passengers will have a very smooth ride with not much noises.

As a bus technician, I feel proud and happy to be a team of maintaining e-buses.

Singapore's bus system didn't start out smooth.

But today, it runs because of many hands behind the scenes.

Controllers adjusting the network in real time.

And technicians keeping the next bus ready to go.