Bus arrival timings hit by technical issues on 12 June, but bus services operating normally: LTA

SINGAPORE: Commuters were unable to view expected public bus arrival timings on 12 June 2026 due to technical issues affecting the display of real-time bus information, although bus services continued operating normally.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a notification posted on the MyTransport journey planning app at about 12.30pm that it was experiencing technical issues affecting bus arrival timing displays.

"Bus services are operating normally," LTA said, adding that it was working to resolve the issue.

The authority also apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Checks on the MyTransport app showed that expected arrival timings were unavailable across bus services.

Singabus, another transport planning application, displayed all buses as having departed.

The disruption prompted discussion among commuters online, with some users on a Reddit thread saying bus arrival timings had appeared more accurate before a recent system outage.

Some commuters said the service had become slightly less reliable after it was restored, although they noted that the discrepancies were generally minor.

Others criticised the system as inconsistent even when operational, raising concerns about the reliability of the information provided.

Recent disruptions

The latest issue comes months after the bus arrival timing system experienced a major disruption in January.

The outage caused inaccurate bus arrival information and extended waiting times to be displayed at bus stops and on mobile applications. LTA initiated a system reset on 21 January 2026, resulting in bus timing information temporarily becoming unavailable on both bus stop displays and transport apps.

LTA later said the root cause was a software defect on buses that was triggered by a server failure. The system was fully restored on 12 February 2026.

The bus timing system faced another disruption on 18 April 2026 after construction works damaged critical underground telecommunications infrastructure.

In a written parliamentary reply on 6 May 2026, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow said the incident affected the transmission of bus location data after several fibre-optic cables were damaged during works carried out by construction firm Asia Piling, and LTA was investigating the matter.

According to the parliamentary reply, the damaged cables caused the bus arrival timing system to operate at only 70 per cent capacity for the remainder of 18 April, resulting in inaccurate waiting times being displayed at bus stops and on mobile applications.

The April incident raised broader concerns about the resilience of Singapore's digital transport infrastructure and the vulnerability of critical public transport systems to service disruptions.

LTA has said it is upgrading the bus arrival timing system with cloud-based infrastructure by 2027.

The planned upgrade is intended to reduce reliance on physical telecommunications cables and improve the system's resilience and reliability during future disruptions.