Passengers on an SMRT Buses double-decker were ordered off near the junction of Punggol Road and the Tampines Expressway on Saturday evening after smoke rose from the rear of the vehicle, according to videos circulated online and follow-up reports from local media.
What riders saw
Footage posted to social media showed more than a dozen people stepping down calmly at a bus stop along Punggol Road. Several carried luggage, consistent with SMRT service 110, which links Buangkok and Changi Airport. Some passengers briefly reboarded to tap their EZ-Link cards before the bus was taken out of service, a routine detail that drew wry comments from Singapore commuters accustomed to fare enforcement even during disruptions.
Lianhe Zaobao reported that the incident occurred at a stop close to the TPE interchange, a busy point for airport-bound travellers and residents heading home from the north-east. SMRT had not published a full technical account by Sunday afternoon, and AsiaOne said it was seeking comment from the operator.
Citaro scrutiny returns
Online commentators quickly asked whether the bus was a Mercedes-Benz Citaro, the model involved in at least three public-bus fires in Singapore during the first half of 2026. In February an SBS Transit Citaro burned on the Pan Island Expressway; another caught fire on the TPE in March; and a third was destroyed near Woodgrove Primary School in May. No one was injured in those cases, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Responding to a parliamentary question in August, Senior Minister of State for Transport Murali Pillai said investigations pointed to failures in different components rather than a single design flaw, and that the parts were within manufacturer-recommended service life. The Land Transport Authority ordered extra inspections on Citaro fleets and reported no widespread defects, but Pillai added that LTA and operators were reviewing whether older buses need stronger preventive maintenance.
Commuter impact
Saturday's smoke evacuation did not, on available evidence, escalate into an open fire, yet it still disrupted airport-bound riders at a weekend peak. Punggol and Sengkang estates depend heavily on trunk services such as 110 for connections to the East and to Changi; even a short delay can cascade across the north-east interchanges where passengers transfer between MRT lines and buses.
For SMRT, the episode lands amid persistent questions about thermal incidents on ageing diesel buses as Singapore expands electric fleets on other routes. Until the operator releases maintenance records for the affected vehicle, riders are left with the same calculation they made after earlier Citaro fires: board as usual, watch for unusual smells or warning lights, and hope the tightened inspection regime catches failures before smoke turns into flames.
What happens next
SMRT and LTA typically publish a brief incident note after mechanical failures on trunk routes, including whether the bus will be quarantined for workshop checks. Commuters who were on service 110 on Saturday can expect detours or bus bridging if investigators keep the vehicle off the road. For everyone else, the sight of passengers filing off a smoking double-decker near Punggol is a reminder that Singapore's bus network still relies on large batches of European-built diesels whose fire record is now a matter of public record in Parliament — even when, as on this evening, the outcome appears to stop at smoke rather than an inferno on the expressway shoulder.