SINGAPORE — Having built up his private transport company from scratch over the past 40 years, it will be a dream come true for Mr Voo Soon Sang if he could run a public bus service in the near future.

Being able to see his buses serve the public from day to night would give him a sense of pride, said the Woodlands Transport group managing director, adding: “I would feel very happy.”

In fact, Mr Voo, 65, had been so enthusiastic about running such a service that when he first got wind of the authorities’ interest in implementing a government contracting model for public buses three years ago, he quickly leapt into action by hiring staff who were adept at preparing bids for such projects.

However, he was forced to shelve his plans until May this year, when the Government’s announced its plans to parcel out bus routes for bidding.

The first package of public bus routes was put up for bidding in October. The successful bidder will be given the right to run 26 routes from the Bukit Batok, Clementi and Jurong East interchanges from mid-2016 to 2021, with a possible two-year extension if there is good performance.

The unassuming businessman started working in his teens, helping out at a provision shop.

In 1970, he began running bus services with the help of two of his kampung friends — Mr Lim Chin Hwee and Mr Sia Leong Bee.

Along with two other investors, they bought a minivan for S$8,700 and began ferrying factory workers and students.

In 1974, the trio set up the business officially after buying two more buses. At that time, the Government had introduced the “Scheme B bus services” to supplement then-Singapore Bus Service routes, and offered private buses a licence to run them.

Mr Voo’s company began to expand gradually, buying 10 buses every year.

Today, it has more than 1,000 transport vehicles, including construction trucks and 350 buses. The buses make about 1,500 trips daily. Woodlands Transport — whose annual revenue stands at more than S$100 million — has 1,090 employees, 70 per cent of whom are Singaporeans.

Mr Voo still remembers the time back in the 1970s when the public bus industry was in a dismal state.

“It was very crowded then; there were long waits and infrastructure was poor, so there was congestion everywhere,” he said in Mandarin.

“If you work in Shenton Way and you leave at 5pm, I don’t think you can reach home in Toa Payoh by 7pm,” he quipped.

In recent years, some of those complaints, such as crowded buses and long waiting times, have resurfaced. Mr Voo attributed the complaints to population growth and more people ditching their cars to take public transport.

But he noted that the Government had taken various measures to address the problems, such as putting more buses on the road.

On how Woodlands Transport can hold its own against bigger foreign rivals vying for a piece of the pie, Mr Voo said: “Foreign companies may bring with them a new culture and new technology. But my company has been in Singapore for over 40 years in the bus industry — we know the feelings and the voices of the people here.”