I read what the Prime Minister said with utter annoyance.

The fact is, this so-called time to time fare increase is an annual affair. The lapdog press under the Singapore Press Holdings will not fail to whitewash it by reminding us that the fares ‘has not gone up since 2009’. Unfortunately for me, fares went up a good 5.9% from S$1.52 to S$1.61 per trip when they changed the fare system last year. What infuriates me the most is that they have the cheek to say 2/3 of commuters will benefit from this change while among my friends the people who actually found it cheaper are in the minority. Benefit, my ass! (Incidentally, they also said 60% of people get a pay increment of 5.5% or something to that effect… I haven’t had a pay increment since 2009.)

If the public transport companies are truly privatised, why should the government speak up for them about “reasonable profits”? The fact is, the SLF [Singapore Labour Foundation] and Temasek Holdings are major shareholders of SBS Transit and SMRT respectively. So, if anyone is are wondering why the PM is speaking up for the business interest and not for the people who elected him, understand that the government is the business interest! It is my considered opinion that the government can either stop pretending that the public transport companies are private and have them completely nationalised like what the Workers’ Party [WP] proposed, or reduce its share holdings in these companies completely and throw them to the sharks. I am quite sure the libertarians would love the latter option.

Anyway, I read from SBS Transit’s latest quarterly financial report that its total operation expenses is S$155.62 million. Extrapolate a little and that means its operating cost would be roughly about S$620 million a year. Now, SBS made a record profit of S$54.28 million in 2010. Is it unhappy that its projected profits will fall below $50 million in 2011? (Comparatively, SMRT made S$162.89 million in 2010. How much does it want to be considered “reasonable”? S$160 million every year? S$160 million once every 3 years? or S$160 million once every 5 years?)

If anyone is wondering whether the ‘good service’ the transport companies have provided can justify the fare increments, let me just point out that our gripes never changed while fares increased all the same. I have written an open letter ‘complimenting’ the SMRT CEO for the ‘exemplary service’ SMRT provided. To add on to what is written, I must also ask how is it that SMRT and SBS Transit suddenly discovered an initiative to add more trains during the Youth Olympics (without all the mumbo jumbo about technical difficulties of the system or the length of the tracks etc), while it has no common sense to increase it over those weekends where there will be trade fairs (like IT shows, NATAS etc) at SunTec or the Singapore Expo? Is SMRT not aware just how much the traffic spike during those periods from the statistics? Or do they never bother to gather these statistics and look at how they can further improve their services? It certainly gives me the impression that our public transport is run for show to get praises from foreigners, and not to serve Singaporeans in their day to day commuting needs.

Let me move on to the buses. I am quite impressed that the new single deck buses SBS Transit bought are much more spacious these days as there are more leg room between the rows of seats now. However, SBS Transit have also decided to remove almost half the seats from these buses so that it can provide two nice spaces for wheel chair users. A space that I often found un-used, since I rarely see a wheel chair person on the bus. As the public transport operators have cited their fleet replacements as one of the justification for fare increment, I must ask how are these new buses more cost effective not only because they are more expensive than the ones they are replacing but that it has a lower seating capacity? Isn’t it more dangerous to have more people stand (in the empty space provided for the rare wheelchair user) on the bus? Frankly, I have no idea how the research done to justify the choice of these new buses is based on commuter feedback. No one in his sane mind would not have considered that the choice is made simply to maximise profit at the expense of commuter comfort.

On top of which, very often the buses come at even more obscene intervals than the trains even when the traffic conditions are ok. At times, one can wait for more than 15 minutes at the fourth or fifth stop from the terminal and the bus that shows up no longer has any more seats if not packed to the rim. Woe to the poor sod who boarded even further down the road. Yet, the bus companies seem to believe it isn’t worth running a double decker instead. What alternatives do commuters really have here when both the trains and buses provide almost the same commuter experience? In fact, this is something that I can never understand since if it takes 1 driver (1 portion of pay) + 1 portion of fuel to run the same bus service for the same trip, why not just run a double decker and make commuters happier? Are bus drivers for double decker paid more and double deckers less fuel efficient?

That’s not all. It is even worse when the bus driver sticks to the time limit (not the speed limit!). By that I mean the driver drags the bus at some unbearable slow speed so he wouldn’t be penalised for reaching the end point early. When one listens to whine of the bus engine, one can imagine a beast trying to break free while a group of people is dragging it from behind and preventing it from running away. Imagine having a car which you always drag at second gear. How is that going to be good for the gear box and in extension – the bus?

Simply put, if the Prime Minister wants us to relax and justify maintaining “reasonable profits” and ensuring “good service, he should be aware that he should first tell us how much is “reasonable” and why. On top of which he needs to be aware that the “good service” has been non existent and clearly the replacement buses the operators are getting will not achieve it either! The entire ‘paradigm’ in which the public transport system is based on needs to be given a serious rethink in view of Singapore’s city design. I am not surprised that once that is done, the bus operators may actually even make steady profits there after without any need to constantly ask for fare increments or fewer commuters will grumpy about fare increments when it happens.