If the bus companies are incurring losses or are barely breaking
even, I can still get it.... a little extra revenue will go a long
way towards improving service quality.
But in the face of large profits, this argument goes down the
drain.
Ah, never mind. Tuck Yew, understand?
Actually fact:
1. SMRTB has never been earning money. The bus division has been
losing money every year since I dunno when. But SMRT as the
umbrella organisation makes a huge profit from other sources that
the Saw established. Eg. The commercial train spaces.
2. But that's no excuse for increasing bus fares. Because SBST
has shown that the bus division need not lose money. For the
record, SBST as the umbrella organisation made 30+M last year.
Still a fair bit, but no where as huge amount as SMRT, which was 9
digit!
3. The MOT is talking about "commercial viability" in the face
of subsidising. That leaves a huge grey area as to what should be
needed to be done. I would rather that we screw the notion of
"competition" and go for a single operator that can take advantage
of scale economics.
