Tag Archives: SBS

Both SMRT and SBS Transit had applied for fare adjustments on Dec 19 last year. The operators had earlier declined to reveal how much of an increase they are asking for.

Details of the revised penalty framework for train operators are expected to be announced this month, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo. The review followed a high-level Committee of Inquiry recommendation that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) improve its oversight of train operator’s maintenance and handling of incidents. In the first major disruption this year, commuters had to disembark and walk along the tracks towards Kranji station yesterday (Jan 11) after train services along the North-South Line were disrupted for one and a half hours following a power outage.

The Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) trial is a first step towards addressing feedback from commuters on bus reliability and regularity, and commuter safety will also be of paramount concern, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The LTA was responding to a statement released by the National Solidarity Party (NSP) yesterday, which pointed out that commuters need more immediate solutions to public transport problems, but schemes such as the BSRF and the S$1.1 billion Bus Service Enhancement Programme have time frames of two years and five years respectively.

The commuters did not benefit from this increased revenue as the formula for fare increase then only took into account increases in the operating costs, not revenues. At the very least, we could have expected that when the commuters suffered overcrowding, they could have enjoyed the comfort of no fare increases. Since the operators now have to catch up with their maintenance costs, why should commuters have to pay for it again through the proposed fare increase? Operators should be accountable for their past mistakes and should not again be allowed a fare increase until they have sort out their current problems

The latest announcement by the Land Transport Authority to penalise and reward public transport operators (PTOs) based on the frequency of delays in buses might have raised a few eyebrows. If not, it really should. Indeed, those who have read the comments in the first report by TODAY would have noted the negative reactions among readers. Clearly, this has not gone down well with the average Singaporean. It is interesting to note that the second report on the issue, by the same author, carried a very different headline – see image above. Perhaps there was a realisation, even by TODAY, of what this penalty-reward scheme really is about?

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said there will be a 20 per cent increase in the fleet of public buses by the end of this year. All 550 buses under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) will hit the roads. From this figure, more than half are already in operation.

LTA: Trial to improve bus service reliability will penalise or reward Public Transport Operators for delays or improvements calculated on 6-month averages