Opening Remarks by Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow at Tower Transit Singapore’s 10th Anniversary Carnival

1.          Good morning!

a.          What a wonderful sight. We are holding a carnival, a birthday party today. Families, children are here; I hear lots of noise in the background. This is how a birthday celebration should be.

b.          Thank you for having me here to join you to mark ten years of Tower Transit Singapore.

c.          I remember back in 2016, when Tower Transit first arrived in Singapore, you held a “Bulim Carnival Day” right here. Quite similar – I saw some pictures and videos, and you were celebrating your first bus contract package.

d.          Now we are back here where Tower Transit’s journey in Singapore began, with a lot more to celebrate.

2.          Let me take you back to the beginning for Tower Transit Singapore. I was also in the Transport Family from 2012 to 2017, when Tower Transit first started.

3.          For more than 30 years, our buses were run by just two 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. And bus companies that not only compete on how well they put commuters first, but more importantly, how well they take care of their workers.

4.          So in 2016, the Government decided to open up our bus sector to more competition via the Bus Contracting Model.

a.          This had been implemented effectively in London.

b.          The Government owns the bus assets, carries ridership and revenue risks, and is the central planner. That frees operators to do what they do best, which is to operate and compete on quality and efficiency.

c.          We made many decisions. One of the major decisions we made was to change the colour of our buses. Today, our buses are a nice green colour.

5.          Tower Transit shared our vision to be a country with the Bus Contracting Model. It was very new to Singapore, but of course, Tower Transit was not new to bus contracting. The fact that you took the leap with us gave us the confidence.

a.          In 2015, Tower Transit won the very first bus package – Bulim – and became our first new public bus operator in over three decades.

6.          Since then, Tower Transit has grown well beyond Bulim. You run almost 70 services today from two depots, with more than 800 buses and some 1,800 staff across the North, South West and Tengah. You even run bus services “overseas” in Sentosa too.

7.          You also brought new thinking to our shores – using new technology, including telematics, to improve safety for our bus commuters and especially our bus captains. I went for a tour (around the bus depot) just now and I really saw the commitment to improving, using technology, and focusing on safety.

8.          All this is important because you know that there are very few jobs that are as demanding as that of the bus captain, and the quality of our bus services is entirely dependent on our workers – the bus captains and those who are doing maintenance.

9.          The Government recognises this too. This is why we have been working closely with operators including Tower Transit, as well as unions, to improve the well-being of our workers in the bus industry, especially the bus captains.

10.          For example, operators are encouraged to re-design work for older bus captains and enabling more flexible work arrangements. For instance, Captain Sathasivam Kannaiyan cares for both his son and wife at home. Tower Transit placed him on a permanent morning shift so he can pick up his son from daycare after work. This is an important commitment because we know how difficult it is to arrange a bus captain’s schedule to accommodate operations.

11.          Earlier this month, the Government announced that, starting salaries and sign-on bonuses for new local bus captains will be raised. This is to draw more Singaporeans into the industry.

12.          But we have not forgotten those who are already behind the wheel today – many of you here. Operators and NTWU have been in discussions, and they have agreed to a one-time salary adjustment for every serving bus captain.  

13.          The adjustments enable us to keep the (bus captain) job as a good job that pays fairly, so that our captains can work with pride and dignity.

14.          And this pride is what we celebrate today, as Tower Transit unveils its new bus captain uniform – a symbol of the identity, standing and professionalism of a vocation that keeps Singapore moving.

15.          The better we look after our people in the bus industry, the more we can do to look after our commuters.

a.          Since coming in as Minister, I have been working closely with the LTA to expand our bus network islandwide.

b.          We have expanded our bus network since 2024 by 35 new or extended bus routes, and enhanced more than 60 services with more buses or better frequencies.

c.          My objective is to better serve Singaporeans who stay in HDB estates further away from the city.

d.          We will always want to have more buses and a larger network. But how well we can do this will ultimately depend on how many bus captains we have.

16.          Ten years ago, Tower Transit chose to take this journey with us. You have completed millions of journeys safely and reliably because of the people who have been with you.

17.          So I am glad that we are celebrating this milestone today together with your families and loved ones. To every member of the Tower Transit family, and to everyone in the bus industry – thank you. Congratulations on your 10th birthday. Please enjoy the carnival today. Thank you very much.