<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--> <!-- more than 4
paragraphs --> TRANSPORT Minister Raymond Lim has dismissed the
notion that a profit-driven public transport operator cannot
provide cheaper, faster and affordable services.
His reasoning: The profit motive drives an operator to aim for
improvements in efficiency and productivity so as to reduce
costs.
He was responding to Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC), who asked
why the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) operated as a
for-profit entity instead of a social enterprise with the goal of
providing cheaper, faster and better public transport services.
But Mr Lim said that experiences elsewhere showed that public
transport services run by state-owned enterprises - without the
profit motive - tended to have higher costs.
The transport authorities in the Australian city of Adelaide,
for example, said costs fell almost 20 per cent after public
transport operations were privatised.
A 2006 study also showed that the SMRT had the lowest operating
costs per passenger among nine other international rail operators -
eight of which were state-owned operators, Mr Lim added.
In any case, the SMRT is prevented from over-charging by a
strong regulatory price-control framework, and fare increases are
capped by a formula administered by the Public Transport
Council.
Service and quality standards which operators are expected to
meet are in place and are reviewed regularly.
Among steps that the SMRT has taken to improve operations is the
increase in the frequency of its trains, with its additional train
trips during peak hours and lunchtime.
Such efforts have been recognised: The company recently
won the Best Passenger Experience Award at the inaugural Metro
Awards 2008, beating finalists such as Copenhagen Metro and MTR
Corporation (Hong Kong), said Mr Lim.
TAN WEIZHEN
Propaganda again..deliberately
ommiting facts that Hong Kong won the best MTR in Asia. Our MRT is
also the second most expensive in Asia after Japan
http://www.mrbrownshow.com/2008/04/14/the-mrbrown-show-best-passenger-experience-award/
US$1.27 in S'pore & US$0.72 in Hong Kong??? sure or not
one bus ride in HK from NT to HK Island can easily
cost S$4 alrdy...
