SINGAPORE: To cover the cost of deferring further public transport fare hikes, the government will be pumping in an additional S$250 million (US$191 million) in subsidies to support public transport operators.
More lower-income households will also stand to benefit from a higher quantum of public transport vouchers to offset the impact of the transport fare hikes that kick in on Dec 28.
Graduating students, meanwhile, will enjoy an extended period of four months of concession benefits.
These are among the measures that have been put in place to help ease the burden of the fare hikes for commuters announced on Monday (Sep 9), as well as to ease cost pressures on public transport operators.
The Public Transport Council (PTC) announced a 10-cent fare hike per journey on public transport for adults, with a 4-cent hike for concession card holders such as students, seniors and persons with disabilities.
The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said that the S$250 million subsidy is on top of over S$2 billion in annual public transport subsidies to keep bus and train services running, as well as the additional funding of up to S$900 million over eight years for the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme.
“In total, this equates to more than S$1 in subsidies for every journey taken on public transport,” said MOT in a media release on Monday.
The S$250 million will cover a deferred fare quantum of 12.9 per cent that will be carried over to the next fare review exercise.
The maximum allowable fare adjustment was 18.9 per cent, but the PTC had opted for a 6 per cent increase in fares to cushion commuters from the full fare increase.
In contrast, both rail operators SBS Transit Rail and SMRT trains had applied for the full 18.9 per cent fare increase.
“The additional government subsidy will help to moderate the fare increase, while still accounting for the higher costs of providing public transport,” said PTC.
STUDENTS TO ENJOY EXTENDED CONCESSION FARES
From Dec 28, students can also enjoy concessionary fares for four months after they graduate.
Currently, students in secondary schools, Institute of Technical Education colleges, junior colleges, polytechnics and other government or government-aided tertiary institutes and eligible private educational institutions pay student concessionary fares.
When these students graduate, some may have to pay adult fares before they enrol into another school and are eligible for concessionary fares again.
PTC said that earlier this year, Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat requested an extension following feedback from parents and students.
Following this, PTC decided that graduating students eligible for concessionary fares would continue to enjoy these fares for four months upon the end of their course of study.
This will start with graduating students whose concession eligibility ends on or after Dec 28 this year, and will apply to the entire group of graduating students. This means that both students who are between educational stages and students who are transitioning out of student concession benefits will enjoy the extension.
In total, around 75,000 graduating students are expected to benefit from this change every year.
To extend the validity of their concessionary cards, this year’s graduating students will need to tap their existing concessionary card at any ticketing machine located at MRT stations and bus interchanges, or visit a ticketing counter from Oct 1 to Dec 31.
Students who are graduating in 2025 or later will be informed by their schools to extend their concession validity towards the end of their final year of study.
The cost of providing these students extended concessionary fares instead of charging adult fares amounts to less than 0.5 per cent of the total public transport fare revenue.