Due to rising energy prices, the Public Transport Council (PTC) announced on Oct 12 that bus and train fares will increase starting Dec 26.
The standard adult fare is set to increase by 4 cents for trips up to 8.2km and up to 5 cents for longer journeys.
According to the PTC, the prices could’ve gone up even higher.
The council depends on a fare adjustment formula that takes into account factors like rising energy and manpower costs and also inflation.
This year, the formula generated the highest allowable increase since 1998 – 13.5% – but the PTC capped the increase to 2.9% and will carry over the remaining 10.6% to future fare reviews.
Minister for Transport S. Iswaran said in a Facebook post that fare adjustments for public transport are never easy but “to keep the public transport system financially sustainable, fares need to be updated to cover the increased costs”.
He sympathised and said he knows the rising costs of living are a concern for many Singaporeans and implemented some subsidies to help vulnerable segments of society.
“To avoid a larger fare increase, we will provide an additional subsidy of about $200 million in 2023 to further support the public transport system. This is on top of the current subsidies of more than $2 billion annually.”
“Fare increases for lower-wage workers and persons with disabilities will be capped at 1 cent per journey, through a concession scheme funded by the Government”
“We will provide more support for lower and lower-middle income households by again making available 600,000 Public Transport Vouchers, valued at $30 each”
Obviously, fare increases never sit well with the public and some took to social media to voice their unhappiness.
One commenter argued that members of the middle income group will suffer the most as they will not receive any subsidies.
Then there’s the standard snarky mister.
Of course, you’ll have the model citizen types.
…and the ones that go a little off-tangent.
Even with the increase, we reckon that public transportation is still the more affordable option compared to private hire services like Grab, Gojek and more. Besides, a monthly ticket price in Singapore costs S$128 – which is cheap compared to a monthly ticket in London, which costs approximately S$257, or S$176 in Tokyo, according to a statistical study.
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