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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