With a majority of its shares owned by Singaporean multinational transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro Corporation at 75%, it was formerly known as Singapore Bus Services before rebranding to SBS Transit on 1 November 2001.

[5][6][7] The government-sanctioned merger was undertaken to improve service standards of the bus transport system.

On 18 January 2003, SBS Transit commenced operating the Sengkang LRT, followed by the North East MRT line on 20 June the same year.

[18] SBS Transit commenced operating the Punggol LRT on 29 January 2005, followed by the Downtown MRT line on 22 December 2013.

[19] SBS Transit had operated the majority of routes in almost all towns of Singapore with the notable exception of Tuas, Joo Koon, Jurong West, Jurong East, Bukit Batok, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang, Woodlands, Sembawang, Yishun, Punggol, Tengah and Pasir Ris, where most routes were under SMRT Buses, Tower Transit (Bulim Bus Package & Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package) and Go-Ahead (Loyang Bus Package).

[22] In July 2024, it was announced that SBS Transit retained the Seletar Bus Package for its second term.

Examples of such buses included the Albion Viking, Mercedes-Benz LP1113 and OF1413 and Nissan Diesel RX102K3 with small numbers of Ford R192 and 226, Seddon, Fargo-Kew, Bedford and Austin.

[27] Following the success of the trial, SBS ordered another 500 Leyland Atlantean AN68 buses from 1978 to 1984, all of which were either bodied by Metal Sections or Walter Alexander Coachbuilders; SBS also conducted comparative trials of double-decker buses of other makes, namely the Leyland Olympian, Volvo Ailsa B55, Scania BR112DH, Dennis Dominator, Dennis Trident 3, Mercedes-Benz O305 and Volvo B10MD Citybus.

[29] SBS also conducted an evaluation of air conditioned buses (namely the ex-Singapore Airport Bus Services Mercedes-Benz OF1413 coaches) that year and conducted similar trials with other bus models like the Nissan Diesel U31S and Renault PR100 (SBS30P) before its first bulk order for 50 Scania N113CRB buses in 1989.

50 buses are bodied by Volgren between 2002 and 2003 while 1 remaining chassis is being reserved for a ComfortDelGro Engineering bodywork, which entered revenue service by 2005.

[33] [34] The NEL currently spans 21.6 km and 17 stations, running from HarbourFront in the south-west to Punggol Coast in the north-east.

[35][36] The operating license for the NEL was awarded to SBS Transit in order to foster competition with SMRT Trains and to create multi-modal public transport companies, each specialising in their own district.