More expensive to travel by bus than train
Come October 2007, public transport fares are going up again. To be exact, only bus fares will see an increase while train fares will be unchanged.
In announcing the latest fare hike, Public Transport Council defended its decision to approve this year's fare revision: both wages and transport fare affordability improved, and the profit of operators are not excessive, so there are no "extenuating circumstances" not to grant the full 1.8% allowed this year to buses. The same fate cannot be said of train: their profit indicator is showing that they are performing too well last year to deserve a fair revaluation of their fares.
As such, the decision to raise only bus fares but not train fares created an interesting phenomenon. Train systems are known to be expensive to operate, which is why it goes without dispute that train fares are higher, if not comparable, to bus fares in almost all cities in the world. The latest revision bucked this trend. In fact, we might have created a world first in land transport industry by allowing bus fares to be more expensive in close to half of the approved fare band.
Responding to PTC's announcement, SMRT rightly pointed out this:
“The latest increase in bus fares will cause SMRT train fares to be cheaper than bus fares in five out of the eight fare bands.”, said Mr Yeo Meng Hin, Deputy President & Chief Operating Officer, SMRT Corporation Ltd
To illustrate this awkward trend, please refer to the graph I've drawn up below (you may wish to click on it to see an enlarged version).
Note that the fares quoted above is for Adult ez-link fare, and the band is following train fare band which has finer graduation of 16 bands compared to bus fare band which has only 8. As you can see, bus fares are more expensive than trains for travel up to band 7, which is the equivalent of about 12km travel. If you're travelling from the city, it is roughly equivalent to travelling from city area to either Buona Vista (west), Paya Lebar(east) or Bishan (north).
Come 2007, do think twice about hopping on a bus for short trips. If you're travelling a distance less than about 12km, it is cheaper to travel by train than bus. You could potentially save up to 11 cents per trip!
For more information, please refer to the following press releases:
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12 comments:
It is indeed an interesting point that you made. This is probably another first for singapore, 1st country in the world to price bus fares above train fares.
Seems like SBST will stand to gain more due to their larger bus fleet.
Is this fare hike a fair opportunity for both companies? Are commuters again at the mercy of the duopoly of 2 transport giants who again will reap the profits of a fair hike without any significant increase in service level? These are some questions that are left unanswered.
anon
Thanks for your information... However, I would afraid by knowing this, the train company might apply for train fare increase next year...
Choosing profitability as a measure to justify fare hike is in my opinion rather ridiculous. As everyone rightly knows, profit is a combination of not just the topline but also the bottomline.
Looking at the corporate world, this is like saying Coca Cola should increase their price just because their profitablity has dropped. Does this make sense to anyone ?
Hi Daniel,
Your entry has been featured in The Singapore Daily. Thank you for your support!
The Singapore Daily
singaporedaily.wordpress.com
Hi all,
It goes without dispute that SBS Transit, operating 75% of the buses, will gain more than SMRT Buses. This in reflected in their contribution to the Public Transport Fund to mitigate fare hike for low income family. Whereas SBS Transit contributed $0.5 million, SMRT contributed only $0.1 million -- a ratio of 5:1 "in favour" of SBS Transit, considering that they operate just 3:1 of the buses in Singapore. A rather skewed fare hike that benefited SBS Transit more? You be the judge.
I don't think the train company will use the basis of "train fare should be higher than bus fare" to justify their fare hike application. Rather, in all application, the operators need to demonstrate to the authorities that they have suffered cost increases which are uncontrollable, e.g. diesel prices. As such, unless the train company is willing to return more of their profit to the passengers in the form of improved services, it is quite unlikely they stand a chance in their next year application, judging by their again superb performance 1H this year.
To SGDaily, it's an honour to be featured. Thanks.
Regards,
Daniel
The "ANNUAL" fare increase will hurt the poor the most once again. What rebate package will count for little, as the package is likely to be one-off, while the fare increase are most probably to be permanent. After all, if the fuel costs can decrease yet fare increase, don't expect the fare to decrease when fuel costs inevitably increase in this inflationary environment.
It is also ridiculous to cite profitability as a wonderful justification not to increase train fare. What kind of reasoning is is?? Rather PTC should be using the household income level as a more approporate measure to justify for fare increase since most of the commuters are mostly from lower-income and middle income level families.
In Singapore, really is never to hard to imagine.
PTC is nothing, but a team of elites who really do not truly understand the distress, misery and agony that we commuters are suffering everyday travelling in this "world class" PT network, since most of them drives
Paul
it is true that the "elites" do not have any sense of issues on the grassroot.
Recently when my organization is looking for a new office, the top management has somehow shortlisted sites that are "convenient" i.e. next to the expressway, less traffic jam without considering the hoops (i.e. bus-train changes) that the ordinary 70% of staff need to go through to come to work.
I am quite sure the few cents increase is nothing compared to the price of latte but to ordinary household of 4, this does add up.
*sigh* thanks for the rant.
If you take into consideration the badly planned bus-lines (which causes the buses to be completely full at one part of the ride, and with half the passengers at other parts of the ride) and the relatively old and noisy buses in Singapore - it seems the people in the management only want to maximize their profits rather thinking of what's best for the people of Singapore.
Its the same in the trains.
Thats why the trains are much less frequent before or after the peak hours - they don't mind people standing in the crowded train. They just want to maximize their profits.
Hi Paul,
Not only are the poor taxed by the mere 1-2 cents increase, passengers who make short distance trip will experience more fare increase (of 2 cents) compared to middle-haul trip (1 cent) -- this to me is not equitable, for our fare structure has always been distant-based.
To anonymous, there are new members to PTC. Some of them represent grassroots, and I know at least one of the new member has been active in lobbying for bus service changes in his town council. You may also find it interesting to note that one of the old guards take public transport quite often. So there's still silver lining that some of the PTC members can have the ground feel of public transport.
To Rider, train service frequency has seen a slight improvements in some pockets of peak hours -- not because they do so willingly, but more because they have to do something about it to cater to increased passenger demand. But having said that, train service frequency can see more improvements. For buses, I'm not hoping for more frequent buses, but at least punctuality and reliability must be up to the mark!
Regards,
Daniel
Thanks Daniel,
I also don't understand why the sits on the trains are not positioned in the same way they are in buses.
I know that common to see it in other mass-transit around the world - but you can have the same amount of passengers that way - and they don't need to stand for an hour after a workday.
They can easily solve the frequency problem on the trains.
But they prefer investing in more roads - so they won't have the famous traffic jams when they come back home in their convinient cars.
(Which makes me doubt their awareness of the fact, that public transportation should be the preferred mean of transportation in Singapore. Decreasing taxes on cars is just an example)
Rants..
The problem is because nobody wants to take responsibility for strategic public transport planning, NOT regulation, in Singapore.
Paying on fares has increased on SBS Transit Buses or SMRT Buses or both bus services? Will it look like cheap (For cents)on SMRT buses?
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