Bus Service Prefixes and Suffixes

Alphabetical Prefixes and Suffixes are sometimes attached to bus service numbers. These can be used to identify special types of bus routes, or used to indicate variants of their parent service.

A, B, C, W — Short Trip Services

Suffix used for supplementary trips which ply segments of their parent route rather than the full route of their parent service. Due to the lengthy nature of most bus routes, Short-Trip services are needed to cater to specific route sectors, rather than improving bus frequencies throughout the route. This helps to better allocate resources to where they are needed.

Most Short-Trip services operate during peak hours, connecting various transport nodes (i.e. MRT station/bus interchange) with residential estates, industrial areas or educational institutions. Other Short-Trip services operate late at night, after the last bus of their parent service has departed. These services usually cater to residential sectors of long trunk routes.

Finally, there are Short-Trip services that only operate on weekends and special occasions, catering to unique sectors of route encountering high demand. Some Short-Trip services fall into more than one of these categories.

Bus Service 67W is currently the only Short-Trip Service with the ‘W‘ suffix, possibly indicating ‘Weekend’.

Bus Services 268C and 962C are currently the only Short-Trip Services with the ‘C‘ suffix.

There are several bus routes sharing the A/B suffix of Short-Trip services, but with unique operating patterns:

CT — Chinatown Direct

Prefix used for Chinatown Direct Bus Services, which connect selected residential estates to and from Chinatown. Introduced in January 2005.

Service	Route	Catchment Areas
CT8	Ang Mo Kio Ave 9 Kg Bahru Ter	Yio Chu Kang, Ang Mo Kio
CT18	Bedok North Ave 3 Kg Bahru Ter	Bedok North, Bedok Reservoir

E, e — Express Services

Suffix used for Express Bus Services, which are bus services that contain express sectors by skipping bus stops or travelling by expressways. This reduces commuting time as compared to regular trunk services.

These services charge Express fares as they provide added convenience and travel time savings.

Uppercase ‘E’

Used to denote peak hour express services (not exhaustive).

Lowercase ‘e’

Used for Limited-stop express services that closely mirror their parent route, but call at fewer bus stops along the way (often incorporating express sectors along expressways/trunk roads). First introduced as Fast-Forward Services by SBS Transit, and later rebranded as Express services after renaming exercise on 13 August 2018. SMRT Buses’ own limited-stop routes (188e, 854e, 963e), formerly using the uppercase E, were renumbered with the lowercase E for standardization.

Service	Route
Uppercase E
850E	Yishun St 41 / Yishun Ring Rd ⇄ Shenton Way / Anson Road
951E	Woodlands St 82 ⇄ Shenton Way / Anson Road
Lowercase e
12e	Pasir Ris Int  Kampong Bahru Ter
89e	Hougang Central Int ⇄ Airport Cargo Road / Airline Road

The Uppercase ‘E‘ suffix (for ‘Ending’) was formerly used for terminating trips on SMRT Intratown services. This has since been renumbered to the ‘T‘ suffix. More information at the T suffix section below.

G, W — Green Plate / White Plate (Directional Loop)

Suffix used by SBS Transit to designate the clockwise and counter-clockwise directions of a loop service (e.g. A→B→C→A and A→C→B→A).

G and W stand for Green Plate and White Plate. In the past, buses carried plastic/metal destination plates, and the green/white background was used to assist commuters in easily identifying the direction of travel.  On modern buses with electronic display signs, the G and W suffix is used instead.

Service 67W is the exception. This is a short trip service variant of Service 67 operating on weekends/public holidays.

The A and B suffixes are also used for directional loop services. Examples are 859A/859B and 912A/912B.

M, X — ‘Modified’ / Route Variant

Suffix used for route variants of a particular bus service, plying a modified version of the parent route. Route variants can operate either alongside their parent service throughout the day, or have operating hours staggered with their parent service.

Historically, route variants have been referred to using a variety of suffixes, such as A or B, C, W, X, or #. Most route variants have been standardized to the ‘M‘ suffix, but exceptions still exist (enclosed in parentheses).

Some route variants like 53M and 123M do not share the route termini of their parent service.

Bus services 170X, 502A, 518A, and 900A are included in the above list as their operation pattern closely matches that of existing route variants, although they retain their non-M suffixes.

N — Nite Owl

Suffix used for SBS Transit operated Nite Owl bus routes.

NR — NightRider

Prefix used for SMRT operated NightRider bus routes.

T — Terminating

Suffix used for the terminating trips of two-part Feeder bus services that perform continuous loops (A→B→A→C→A repeatedly). These ‘combined Feeder routes’ were formerly known as Townlink (SBS Transit) or Intratown (SMRT Buses) routes. Displaying the T suffix indicates that the bus will terminate at the interchange and no longer continue on the next loop.

Historically, SBS Transit used a ‘T sign‘ at the front of the bus, while SMRT Buses used the ‘E suffix‘ on the electronic display signs of their buses. These have now been standardized to the T suffix on all electronic display signs.

Service 36 is the only trunk service operating in continuous-loop fashion, and also the only trunk service to use the ‘T’ suffix.

EB, GA, TT, WT — Employee Bus Services

Prefix used for Employee Bus Services, which are scheduled bus services run by Public Transport Operators as a means of transporting employees.

SBS Transit ones are numbered with the prefix “EB” for Employee Bus, followed by a number. The exact number of EB services is unknown, but the lowest and highest numbers spotted so far are EB1 and EB55. Some EB routes have letter suffixes to them.

SMRT Buses refers to these services as Worker’s Transport and are numbered with the prefix “WT”, followed by a number, starting from 1 and ascending in numerical order. The exact number of WT services are unknown, but service numbers as high as WT26 have been spotted.

Similarly, Tower Transit Singapore and Go-Ahead Singapore use the prefix ‘TT‘ or ‘GA‘ followed by a number. Some GA routes have letter suffixes to them.

Continued on Page 2:

• Legacy Bus Service Prefixes and Suffixes

The post Bus Service Prefixes and Suffixes first appeared on Land Transport Guru.