Originally posted by service_238:
Hmm From what i see from SBST on its deployment on the newest DDs (Trident and VSOs)
Tridents were initially deployed on high demand routes on 64 85 111 502 as reported in the news. I'm not sure if 80 was one of them. I'm not sure what buses they replace but i believe some SDs and older DDs were replaced by the Tridents. As with NEL and HGDEP deployments, Tridents went over to 80 as 80 is a super high demand route. Those on 111 502 were redeployed to 153 165 to replace the O305s.
Recently in march 2004, they were redeployed again on 62 89 to replace the older DDs on these services. in turn, the older VOs went to 153 165. I dont know the reasons why SBST does this but i;m sure there's a logical reasoning for that. What i reckon is that to redeploy Tridents on 89 would make HGDEP think that 89 has a full Trident DD fleet instead of a mixture of VO batches. Easier for them to track perhaps?
Now for the VSOs. They were put into service in Feb 2003. Some of them is because of the need of DDs and the replacements of other DDs. Here is the breakdown in order of rego..
28: Replace LO2x
76: Needs DDs. Some Merz redeployed somewhere else
21: Replace LO3x and maybe a couple of Merz
56: Replace all LO3x to make 56 a full VSO DD fleet
25: Replace Merz and older LO3x and to compete with 854 (show off also)
70: Replace 96xx DDs which gone over to BNDEP
31: Replace LO3x. They were redeployed on 72.
72: Needs DDs. At the same time beef up freq
133: Replace LO3x. They were redeployed on 55.
161: Needs DDs and to show off to TIBS in Woodlands.
168: Same as 161.
Some information here may not be correct. Kindly correct wherever possible.
Sv. 133 VSOs were orginally supposed to be deployed on Sv. 55, according to the BC of 9834C, which was on training at Bishan Int.