Bus contracts will be offered by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) through competitive tendering.

The Government will own, provide and fund all bus operating assets and infrastructure, such as buses, depots, interchanges, as well as bus feed monitoring and operations systems. It will keep the fare revenue.

Bus operators will be paid fees to operate the services. They will pocket the non-fare revenue.

Twelve packages of routes, with about 300 to 500 buses each, will be available. Packages will be based around depots and could be a combination of existing and new routes.

Three packages, making up about 20 per cent of routes, will be tendered out first. The contract period will be five years, with a possible two-year extension on good performance. The first package will be tendered out in the second half of this year for implementation from the second half of 2016.

The remaining 80 per cent will be grouped into nine packages. These will be run by incumbents SMRT and SBS Transit on negotiated contracts under the contracting model, for about five years, after their Bus Service Operating Licences expire on Aug 31, 2016. After the negotiated contracts expire, more bus services will be gradually tendered out.

Beyond 2022, there will be full tendering of bus services, with an estimated three to five operators in all.

Higher service standards will be set. For example, the waiting period for all buses should not exceed 15 minutes during peak periods.

A common bus livery, much like the iconic red London bus, is being explored.