Singapore is the first bus market outside of Britain for Go-Ahead, but the transport operator is confident its 26 years of expertise in bus scheduling, route management and maintenance regimes will help it meet the performance standards laid out by the authorities, reported The Straits Times.

"We have a strong track record of providing passenger transport in busy urban areas," said Go-Ahead Group Chief Executive David Brown.

Go-Ahead was announced yesterday as the winner of the second government bus tender, earning the rights to operate 25 bus services from the third quarter of next year.

Mr. Martin Dean, Managing Director of bus development, said the firm will implement its active route management system in which supervisors and drivers are trained to deal with disruptions and delays. Its supervisors also monitor the routes and bus locations through iBus, which is fitted on every bus.

Go-Ahead has a robust maintenance regime, inspecting every vehicle every four weeks, regardless of use, said Mr. Brown. The firm also plans to hire 900 staff here, mainly bus captains. Asked how it intends to tackle the driver crunch, Mr. Dean said flexible working schemes would be possible and the firm will also have attractive career pathways for bus captains that extend beyond just driving.