This implementation follows the recommendation of the Bus Safety Tripartite Taskforce.
Tower Transit Singapore will give its bus drivers on long haul rides designated breaks by swopping them out mid-route.
According to The Straits Times (ST), the bus company will implement this regime for bus service 858, Singapore's longest bus route.
858 runs from Woodlands Interchange to Changi Airport before looping back to Woodlands, covering 73.4km.
This implementation follows the recommendation of the Bus Safety Tripartite Taskforce, which was submitted to the Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat on Mar. 5.
The Taskforce noted the demanding nature of bus-driving and recommended that bus captains be provided with support through improvements in skills and well-being.
One of the Taskforce's proposals was to introduce bus routes with a scheduled runtime of no more than two hours.
According to feedback from bus captains, the optimal runtime for a single journey should not exceed two hours.
"Longer journeys can result in lapses in concentration and case stress to bus captains, such as when they feel the urge to use the toilet.
This could increase the risk of accidents occurring."
The Taskforce also recommended that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and bus operators study existing bus services with long runtimes to reduce the runtime of services where feasible.
It pointed out that most of the existing bus routes with scheduled run times exceeding two hours are older routes introduced when the rail network was sparser and there was a greater need to connect distant locations across the island.
ST reported that since Mar. 18, Tower Transit Singapore adjusted its roster of 115 bus drivers for bus 858 to give them more rest at Changi Airport.
Tower Transit Singapore director of communications, Glenn Lim, told ST that bus 858's three-hour run is "particularly demanding."
As such, the mid-route swop allows drivers to take breaks without affecting service or impacting commuter wait times.
Upon arriving at Changi Airport Terminal 2, drivers can take a designated break of four to nine minutes during peak periods. During off-peak hours, drivers will get eight to 15 minutes.
Before this, drivers did not have a designated break when they arrived at Changi Airport but could hop off the bus to use the toilet if needed.
As the service runs at a frequency of one to five minutes during peak hours and six to 10 minutes during off-peak hours, the drivers will alight at Changi Airport Terminal 2 to take a break.
The driver of the bus ahead of them will take their place, and they will then relieve the driver who comes next.
Two bus drivers, one morning shift, one afternoon shift, have been added to help make the change possible.
A supervisor has also been deployed to Changi Airport Terminal 2 for two weeks to help bus drivers with the transition.
Lim added that while this has raised operation costs, the primary focus is the well-being of bus drivers.
Mothership has contacted the three other bus operators, SBS Transit, SMRT, and Go-Ahead Singapore, to ask if they will be implementing a mid-journey swop on their long haul rides.
