S’pore’s public transport fares are not decided on anyhow by the Public Transport Council

Soft truths to keep Singapore from stalling.

Digging deeper into the different components of the fare formula, the core consumer price, wage and energy indices reflect changes in overall costs, manpower costs and fuel/electricity costs respectively.

And as we ponder over the quantum of this year’s fare increase, as commuters, we may also want to explore ways that we can potentially reduce the cost of our daily commute.

PTC has announced the quantum for the 2018 fare review exercise to be 4.3%. This is the first time the figure has been positive, after three consecutive years of fare decreases, driven largely by falling energy price.

We are now in the season of the annual Fare Review Exercise and are reviewing the 2017 fare adjustment and rail operators’ proposals against this background.

The current fare formula is valid for five years, from 2013 to 2017. Hence, it is timely for the Public Transport Council...