I personally really have no clue how the Public Transport Council [PTC] conclude that 2/3 of commuters will see their transport fare goes down while the remaining 1/3 will see an increase in their fares.

I noticed in Twitter and Facebook many comments that their fares have gone up but I didn’t really take pay close attention. It was after fellow blogger DK put up his blog post, I decided to use gothere.sg and calculate my fare. I thought I should just verify what he wrote for my own good if I wanted to pass on the information to another person.

The result was utterly shocking!! I am also among the 1/3 which will see my fare rise from $1.51 to $1.62. It’s a 11 cents (almost 7.3%) increment per trip (left). Based on a 22-day work month, that is about another $4.84 a month ($58.08 a year – which would be better if I gave it to a charity that allows me 250% tax reduction per dollar contributed). That makes the two of us among the 1/3 who are paying more per trip. Basically, if you can travel directly from point to point without making a transfer, you are out of luck!!

The devil is clearly in the details, and the PTC has done a very good job this round to sugar-coat the poison package this fare increment to stamp out commuter outrage. Meantime, trains are still coming at deplorable intervals after this hidden fare increment and they are usually still packed to the brim while bus bunching remain rampant – especially in the recently prevalent rainy conditions.

To make sure my anger is ‘justified’, I checked with a few other people and I realised that if you are able to travel from your home to your workplace without any need to transfer, your fare can go up even a staggering 17.4% (12 cents). This is the case for a school teacher who lives just a few stops away from where she stayed (see below). For her to reduce her fare increase to just 2 cents, she will have to take the feeder bus which takes her on a tour around the estate a roundabout route before reaching her destination. (She also pointed out that the calculation on gothere.sg may differ from that of publictransport.sg, so you might want to also check it out when doing your calculations.)

The only exception is when I checked with Nicole who needs to make two transfers and she saved 25cents a trip. The fare dropped from $2.10 to $1.85 (see below). While I was going to congratulate her for being among the so-called 2/3 of commuters who are saving on travelling, she pointed out to me that it is ridiculous that the transport fare system would punish her if she chooses to wake up early to walk to the MRT station. In fact, she also pointed out that the only time she gained is when she shuttles between home and work, but it will be even more expensive for her to travel directly without transfer from point to point.

It wasn’t long both of us came to the conclusion that this new fare system seems to suggest that you ‘waste time to save money’. I did a calculation based on a hypothetical journey where instead of walking from home to the MRT, I take a feeder to the MRT station for just ONE bus stop instead. And viola, I was surprised that that trip actually cost me $1.71 under the old system, but only $1.64 now. In the past when I walk to the MRT station, it would only cost me $1.51 and gives me a healthier lifestyle. Now it costs me $1.62 to do the same and if I wanted to fool myself that I have reduced my fare by a imaginary 7 cents (from $1.71 to $1.64), I have to forsake my walk to and from the station not to mention it would take me an estimated 5 minutes more in travelling time.

So, whatever happened to the advantage of staying near an MRT station or finding a workplace that is convenient? Is there even now a point of buying property near an MRT station? Whatever happened to a healthier lifestyle? Why are people penalised for walking to the MRT station?

I managed to bother yet another friend to do the fare calculation down over at gothere.sg and publictransport.sg, and it managed to reinforce my opinion that one should find a workplace that takes as many transfer as possible (see below). Do take specific note that the comparison here between the gothere.sg results and that of publictransport.sg is provided here as a rough comparison because gothere.sg suggested to her the supposed ‘shortest’ way to get to her destination while she took one that reduces the walking distance.

I suppose now I have a even better reason to jack up the price of my unit near the MRT station because it actually cost me more to travel using public transport, in spite of the convenience of it being nearby.

By the way, I was told that Saw “Phiak Phiak” (SMRT CEO) responded that “I never said that I didn’t recognise it’s crowded… I accept it’s crowded. The point is, in comparison with others, we’ve yet to push people into the train,” referring to Japan and some parts of China.

Is she even aware that most large cities in China have a larger population than Singapore, not to mention that Tokyo is the largest metropolis in the world if I am not wrong? If she isn’t aware of these facts, she probably deserves to get her ass “phiak phiak’ed”. Just which moron put this ignoramus as CEO of one of Singapore’s public transport company? I felt almost vindicated because I mentioned this in my previous post:

Addendum
It is my considered opinion that while it maybe technically true that ‘2/3 of the people benefits’ from this new fare system, it creates the impression that 1/3 of the people is made to pay more to ‘subsidise’ 2/3 of the rest. Now I wouldn’t really care if car owners or the more affluent are made to ‘subsidise’ public transport users, but how 1/3 of people who use public transport – who I generally do not consider rich – are made to ‘subsidise’ the other 2/3 is beyond me.

Besides, I am still in the opinion that the entire system is ill-conceived and commuters who make regular short trips – for e.g. to take lunch at a hawker centre slightly further away from the workplace, to meet friends after work near the office, to the mall or supermarket at the city central to buy some stuff, or children taking public transport to school – he will end up paying more and some of that will go towards eroding whatever savings from the regular / daily transfers made from those trips requiring them. After all, if I understand it correctly, basic fares has gone up from 69cts to 71cts across the board for anything under 3km. That’s no mentioning that if you have elderly dependents or children, their concessionary fares also go up accordingly. It really doesn’t matter if one enjoyed going to godforsaken places where ‘birds do not lay eggs and dogs do not shit’ every now and then, and have several transfers showing $0 or $0.01 to give an orgasm. Just make sure one made enough money when young so they won’t feel sorry about the fare during the last few years of life.

Basically there is really not much we can do about it except to bitch about it, or just ‘suck it up’ as this blog post suggests.

Personally speaking, since the transport operators are on the PTC and I consider this action ‘a conflict of interest’ and ‘self rewarding’, I have no incentive to be civil-minded and to take any form of action should I see anyone vandalising and damaging their vehicles or equipment. Do I really care about the other commuter whose trip will be ruined if someone breaks the seat on the bus? Nah, he could be paying less because he needs to transfer while I end up with the short end to ‘subsidise’ him. What goes around simply… comes around. Not forgetting, it’s not like even if the buses are in tip top conditions they won’t be replaced for a long time. All of that replacement cost is always transferred to commuters so face it: It’s already factored in the next fare increment already.

Anyway, I have no long since ceased to believe members of the PTC (who are car owners, and definitely not use the public transports as often as most commuters do) will take note of the plight of most commuters and understand what is really required. It would be ironical when the day some form of distance based ERP system be adopted but it will be cold comfort to many commuters who has long suffered under this ridiculous fare system.

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