Just one cent – that’s the likely average fare hike
BUS and train fares may rise by no more than 1 per cent even though this year’s fare adjustment formula allows for a jump of up to 3 per cent.
That means fares on average could rise by one cent, the lowest in memory.
If fares had been allowed to go up by 3 per cent, the increase could have been between four and five cents.
Public Transport Council (PTC) chairman Gerard Ee said: ‘The PTC would like to give the assurance that it will not turn a blind eye to a range of cost increases commuters have been facing.’
He added that the PTC was persuading public transport operators to shoulder part of the costs of removing the transfer penalty.
This ‘penalty’ is the extra amount paid by a commuter who transfers from bus to bus, bus to train or train to bus, compared to someone taking a direct service over the same distance.
Four in 10 commuters now make transfers, each of which adds around 35 cents to the cost.
Mr Ee, calling this year a ‘challenge’ for the PTC, said that if it worked ‘carefully’, fare increases could be expected ‘to be below last year’s cap of 1.8 per cent’.
Last year’s fare increase cap pushed bus fares up by two cents.
‘And there’s a possibility that we can keep it within 1 per cent,’ he said.
He added that some commuters could even end up paying less for their overall transport expenses.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Intelligent Transport Systems Asia-Pacific Forum & Exhibition at Suntec City, Mr Ee said: ‘Our aim is to make sure that the greater majority of commuters will gain from the adjustment.’
Read the full article at AsiaOne News
- If you read between the lines of this article, Public Transport Council (PTC) chairman Gerard Ee did not offer any kind of gurantee that the increase in fare is one cent…but a POSSIBILITY/Maybe/likely/Could be/May rise just one cent. The article also emphasis the “the lowest in memory” rise of public fare hike is purely to “put decoration on a widening wound of commuters”.
Now with Taxi charging fuel surcharges of 30 cents and a possible 1 cent hike per public transport means much higher cost of overall public transportation which may force people to travel by alternate means of bicycle which is very inconvenient to the old & very young.
It’s time to revamp the roads to be bicycle friendly.
