Transport Hikes

silkmagic SG

With the new fare increase, you will expect that the level of service will have increased. With the LRT breaking down so often, buses involved in accident, sometimes I wondered if there is any justification in the fare increase. This is because they are called public transportation and should be affordable for the general public which is why they should be subsidised or breaking even. They are different from taxi whereby if you can afford it, you can use it. The fare increase comes about when these companies are making money and they are complaining that the operating cost is going up. They should examine how to reduce their operating cost instead of requesting for a fare hike.

Furthermore, they can turn profit immediately as the MRT is built by the government before transferring the system to the transportation company which means that they do not need to pay for the building of the infrastructure as they are paid with the taxpayer's money. Therefore no loan to service. Just like setting up a business with everything paid for and just need to provide the worker for it.

With the economy still bad, most of the companies here will have little or no annual increment, people in Singapore will be hit hard with the fare increase and GST increase.

Viper52 SG

The issue here, is mainly about the timing of the hikes. To say the hike is badly timed, is an ultimate understatement, and the governments line of "Better one big hike at once rather than many small hikes" on exacerbates the feeling among Singaporeans that the gov't doesn't understand, which face it, they don't...

As for the examples of poor service cited by Silkmagic, I think the one that really deserves condemnation if the LRT fiasco. In other countries, the level of breakdowns/disruptions etc would have triggered a Board of Inquiry already. Alas, all we've gotten is apologies and excuses....apologies are good, but what action has been done to remedy the situation?

Buses getting into accidents? I think thats unavoidable, it might not always be the bus drivers fault....

I can think up of a few other areas where services can be improved. I have taken buses in Singapore several times when I'm back in Singapore for school breaks, more than once I've boarded an aircon bus and paid extra only to find the aircon not working. Once after having the bus stuck in the heat at Orchard Road I finally snapped, called SBS Customer Service and gave the chap at the other end a piece of my mind. Basically questioned him on SBS policy on broken down a/c in buses and when I found out that the bus driver in question was violating policy, basically made some pretty nasty remarks(no vulgar language don't misunderstand) to him about getting better training and more rigid enforcement of the rules. When he promised so, I snapped "Yes...please do" in a sarcastic tone and hung up. Moral of the story, don't just gripe, do something about it...

Another gripe I have is over what I feel are unnecessary frills such as aircon-ed bus interchanges and TV Mobile. The latter is a useless piece of crap if I ever saw one...takes up space which someone can be confortable sitting on and more often than not can't be heard over the bus engine. Maybe if they cut back on useless crap like that we won't need to hear bloody SBS,TIB etc bleating about 'increased operating costs'..altohugh I gotta admit, watching Lisa Ang hosting Hey!Singapore on TV Mobile sure made the trip from Eunos to Bt Timah a whole lot more bearable! Mr. Green

Finally in their defence, I'd like to end by saying all things considered the public transport system in SG is, to be honest, pretty good, and not unafordable yet, although I don't know how long I can say that. What must be addressed is wastage on unnecessary luxuries, inefficiency and a tendency to raise fares as the first and only resort to address rising costs rather than the 2 points I brought up.

If anyone is interested in hearing about my horror stories of public transport in Melbourne do let me know...I'll be glad to tell them here...

silkmagic SG

I agreed that accident cannot be avoided but have you notice that the bus driver nowadays are a bit reckless and impatient which lead to an increase in the bus accidents.

Furthermore the fine that LRT received are peanuts. Imagine fining a transport company few thousand dollars for what happened. It is a joke.

I must admit that we have a world class transport system which is so far affordable but we could really do away with the luxury of having TV on board buses. Just imagine they are showing a whole feature filim on TV and which route in Singapore takes two and half hours so that I can finish the flim. Nonsensical...... Just ensure that air con is cold in air con buses and keep the frill to the minimum and stop increasing our fare. If I want to travel in comfort, i will hire a merc taxi.

Silenthunter SG

thing to note....Trans Island buses have no TV mobile and we are paying the same fare.....I mean if we are really going to pay that much then we expect the services they promise............... Wat's the lame excues they will give the next time?

At least mobile TVs are better than that "Join the Navy" ad in MRT monitors every 10 secs. I want to know wat time the MRT will be here...not joining some NAVY??? What are they trying to do, screensave their $20K plasma TV? DUH! Shocked

Viper52 SG

Silenhunter,

I agree, this plasma-screen TV thing is just another example of their frivolous excesses which really makes their moaning about "increased operating costs" sound hollow. The fact is that while we believe that operating costs will increase, we are extremely dissatisfied with the fact that the impression the paying public is given that fare increases are the only way to offset the increased costs while no thought is given to looking at ways to streamline efficiency or cut back unneccessary expenses first before thinking about increaseing fares.

They seem to have missed the point that they exist to provide public transport at a reasonable level of comfort(ie not excessive), and not public entertainment.

Atobe SG

The problem with SMRT, LRT, TIBS, SBS, COMFORT, and all form of PUBLIC TRANSPORT is that they are ultimately owned and operated (in part or wholly) as a Government Owned Company but given a Private Face.

The people that are employed to run these organisations - although highly paid as supposedly private high flying executives - end up as "run-of-the-mill" Civil Servants.

Every step to be made, must be studied a thousand times, lest one false step will end up one's career.

Not every Management Executive has the backing of Government Ministers to explain for the stupendous losses incurred as a result of poor judgement.

Yet despite of all such precautions, one can only wonder if it is due to lack of talent to operate the system, or a lack of simple business talent (aka acumen).

The old debate of nurtured and innate talent will have to continue.

Viper52 SG

Looking at the transport companies we have in Singapore, the debate is over as far as I'm concerned

silkmagic SG

Cross my finger and hope for the best. People who run the transport companies are usually people who do not use them. Just like architects who design the HDB flats are normallyy not staying in them.