ComfortDelGro

Comfort Group Limited

In May 1970, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) announced plans to provide a cooperative taxi and minibus service.[4] The cooperative was aimed to target the problem of pirate or "ali baba" taxis which were rampant in Singapore at that time,[5] and NTUC planned to get former pirate taxi drivers to drive the minibuses as part of the cooperative.[6] The NTUC Co-operative Commonwealth for Transport Limited ("COMFORT" or "NTUC Comfort") was hence formed by the NTUC as a social enterprise together with the affiliated NTUC Income and NTUC Welcome.[5] Comfort started operations in 1971 with a fleet of 1,000 taxis, with the first taxis entering service at the end of January that year.[7]

In June 1993, NTUC Comfort was corporatised and renamed Comfort Transportation Pte Ltd. Comfort was subsequently listed on 6 June 1994 and became the Comfort Group Limited.[8] The listed company was owned by Singapore Labour Foundation (41.7%), its owner-drivers as a single block (approximately 20%) and the public (35%).[9]

At the time of the merger announcement in 2002, Comfort's taxi business operated under the brand names of Comfort and Yellow Top with a combined fleet of approximately 11,340 taxis. It was Singapore's largest private bus operator then with 401 buses on unscheduled routes.[10] It also had a fleet of 730 taxis in China through joint ventures.

DelGro Corporation Limited

Singapore Bus Services Limited was established on 1 July 1973 to unify bus services in Singapore.[11][12] The company was replaced by Singapore Bus Service (1978) Limited on 17 February 1978, which was then listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES) on 26 June the same year.[13][14][10]

By the 1990s, the company has diversified to other land transport businesses such as taxis, as well as property and engineering businesses. In 1992, the bus operations were reorganised under a new subsidiary SBS Bus Services Pte Ltd.[10] The original parent company Singapore Bus Service (1978) Limited was renamed DelGro Corporation Limited on 12 November 1997, from the words "Delta" and "Growth".

Merger

Comfort and DelGro's merger was first proposed on 21 November 2002.[10] In its joint announcement, the merger aimed to "consolidate the transportation businesses of the Companies in order to enhance profitability and shareholder value".[10] The merger was finalised on 29 March 2003.

The merger had a market capitalisation of over $1 billion, combined sales of $1.56 billion, and pre-tax earnings of $196 million. It set to provide a spectrum of transport services ranging from bus and taxi services to leasing and vehicle maintenance and inspections.[21]

The new company's only rival then was SMRT Corporation, which had a market capitalisation of around $930 million, sales of $500 million and pre-tax profits of $88.5 million then. The latter's fleet of some 600 buses and 2,000 taxis was smaller, but it was operating Singapore's rail network entirely.[21]

Expansion into Autonomous Mobility

On 10 December 2025, ComfortDelGro announced its partnership with Pony.ai, and will begin testing their autonomous vehicle shuttles in residential district Punggol, Singapore. This comes after they got approval from Singapore regulators to start autonomous vehicle testing on public roads.[22]

Bus and Rail

ComfortDelGro owns 75% of SBS Transit, which is listed separately on the Singapore Exchange. SBS Transit is a leading bus and rail operator in Singapore. Every day, it carries more than three million passengers on its extensive bus and rail network.[23]

SBS Transit operates about 250 bus services with a fleet of more than 3,200 buses. The buses serve 17 interchanges and more than 3,500 bus stops island-wide. Additionally, SBS Transit operates the North East Line, which is Singapore's first fully automated, underground heavy rail system that connects Punggol to HarbourFront, as well as the Sengkang and Punggol LRT lines.

SBS Transit also operates the Downtown line. It is 42 km long with 34 stations, making it the longest underground line in Singapore. The first stage of the Downtown line commenced passenger service on 22 December 2013. The second and third stages were ready for passenger service on 27 December 2015 and 21 October 2017 respectively.

ComfortDelGro Bus, as a private-bus charter subsidiary, is the largest private land-transport company in Singapore, which offers a wide range of bus charter services, including employee and school bus services.

Australia

ComfortDelGro Australia is ComfortDelGro's Australian subsidiary, and operates buses in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. The subsidiary started out in 2005 as a joint venture between ComfortDelGro (51%) and Australian taxi company Cabcharge (49%) known as ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (CDC), to purchase Westbus and Hillsbus in Sydney and Hunter Valley Buses from National Express.[37]

In August 2006, ComfortDelGro Cabcharge expanded purchasing the Western Sydney services of Baxter's Bus Lines followed in August 2007 by Morisett Bus Service, Sugar Valley Coachlines and Toronto Bus Service.[38][39]