SBS Transit and French public transport operator RATP Dev have entered into a strategic partnership to deliver world-class metro services in Singapore.
The partnership, which brings together a combined 87 years of experience in railway operations and maintenance, will form a new jointly-owned company that’s set up to explore new business prospects in the Singapore rail industry.
The company will be helmed by a team of experienced staff, who will come from both organisations.
The company will also propose centres of excellence to reduce reliance on original equipment manufacturers and life-cycle reliability so as to strengthen the reliability of Singapore’s railway system and promote local rail engineering capabilities.
SBS’s acting CEO Cheng Siak Kian and RATP Dev CEO in APAC, the Middle-East and North Africa, Olivier Badard signed a teaming agreement to announce the partnership on Dec 14.
The signing was witnessed by France’s Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Franck Riester, along with SBS Transit’s chairman Lim Jit Poh and Laurence Batlle, RATP Dev’s Chairwoman of the executive board.
“We are excited by the prospects of this partnership which will certainly help bolster the reliability of our railway system. Besides this, it will go a long way in developing our rail engineering talent. I see this as a win-win situation not just for the industry but also for our commuters,” says Lim.
“Land Transport in Singapore is a worldly acknowledged market which has set some of the highest quality standards in our industry. We are delighted to join forces with SBST and combine our longterm vision on assets and mobility with SBST’s state-of-the-art customer-centric expertise to raise the bar even higher in terms of reliability, quality and sustainability for rail,” adds Batlle.
The partnership comes six months after a similar agreement was signed between SBS Transit’s parent company, ComfortDelGro and RATP Dev, to jointly bid for Lines 16 and 17 of the Grand Paris Express greenfield metro projects.
See: ComfortDelGro, RATP Dev, and Alstom to jointly bid for metro projects in France
Shares in SBS Transit closed flat at $3.10 on Dec 14.
