Bus ETA system restoration to take four days after technical reset, says LTA

The restoration of Singapore’s Expected Time of Arrival (ETA) system for buses is projected to take four days, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on 21 January 2026.

This follows a system reset that began at 8pm on 21 January, implemented to address widespread technical disruptions affecting estimated bus arrival times.

Commuters have since been unable to access ETA information on electronic displays at bus stops and interchanges, as well as through digital platforms such as MyTransport.SG, CityMapper and Google Maps.

In a statement issued on 22 January, LTA said the reset revealed a memory cache build-up within the on-board systems of certain buses. This unexpected issue has affected approximately 50 per cent of the public bus fleet across all operators.

To resolve this, technicians are required to physically service the on-board devices in affected buses.

“Given the scale of the work, the process is expected to take about four days,” said LTA.

Despite the outage, bus operations have continued uninterrupted. Services are still running at their normal frequencies, and commuters have been advised to refer to SimplyGo and public transport operators’ websites for schedule information.

LTA confirmed that it would begin switching the ETA system back on from the start of passenger service on Friday, 23 January, to begin testing and stabilising operations.

However, during this transitional phase, commuters should expect that bus arrival timings may not be fully accurate or consistently available.

“More than 60 per cent of the bus arrival timings will be available for commuters from 23 January at touchpoints such as the electronic passenger information displays at bus stops and interchanges, apps like MyTransport.SG and third-party apps such as CityMapper and Google Maps,” LTA stated.

For the remaining affected services, missing or inaccurate data may still be observed, but LTA expects these issues to diminish as restoration progresses.

The disruption first emerged on 10 January, when the ETA system began to display increasingly inaccurate wait times.

LTA’s preliminary findings, shared in a press release on 21 January, attributed the issue to “intermittent transmission” problems within the on-board systems of some buses. These resulted in missed predictions for a proportion of the bus network.

According to LTA, the reset was necessary to re-establish accurate data transmission between buses and the central system. However, the post-reset discovery of memory cache build-up introduced an additional layer of complexity.

“Our engineers and ETA system contractors are working with the bus operators to rectify the issue urgently,” the authority said.

While some commuter inconvenience is expected to persist during the system recovery, LTA reiterated that it regrets the disruption and is focused on a complete and swift resolution.