The Public Transport Council (PTC) said on 3 November that bus and train fares will be increased by 2.2 percent from 26 December onwards.
This is after the PTC’s annual fare revision exercise.
It essentially means that adult fares will be increased by about 3 to 4 cents; while fares for senior citizens, students, the disabled and lower-wage workers will see a 1 cent increase in their concession fares.
However, the prices for cash fares, travel passes, single trip tickets and concessions (monthly) will not change.
The fares for rides up to 14.2km will increase by 3 cents. PTC added that it recognises the “difficult economic circumstances” of the people due to the pandemic, the decision was made due to the sharp drop in peopole riding public transport.
Richard Magnus, the chairman of PTC, said:
“We seek commuters’ understanding that it is not possible to keep deferring fare increases as they are needed to support the rising operating costs, such as energy and wages, for our public transport system, lower fare revenue with higher operational costs cannot continue indefinitely.”
Ridership levels dropped by 30% and 40% for both buses and trains in the year 2020, but operators have continued to run both transports at pre-pandemic frequencies.
PTC shared that they incurred a few million dollars in operating costs, including disinfecting the premises and deploying of staff.
They (SMRT and SBS) also revealed that without government support, they would have suffered significant losses last year.
The 2.2% fare increase was brought over from the 4.4% increase from 2020 after fares were frozen for 2020.
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