The new ‘distance fares’ thing is up and after a couple of bus rides over the weekends I wrote an analysis of the new fare system on ERPZ. It covers only buses and so the conclusion was that ‘distance fares’ is cheaper over longer distances or short trips that would need much more transfers. I have friends who commented that it seem to be more expensive when coupled with the fares from the rail.
I’m not sure how the rail fares are added but if it indeed starts counting from distance 0km when you get on the train, it will really be expensive to include a train journey between bus rides because your distance counter ‘resets’ for the train ride. If the distance counted for bus and trains are not in the same pool and additional fares charged from train rides after taking a bus is not the marginal cost at those distances, consumers could end up paying more than if there were rebates in place.
This point is vague and not really explained in the public posters for commuters. The cost of train rides is pretty high for the North-East Line as well as the Circle Line. In any case, the fare revision news release from the Ministry of Transport hinted at future changes that may affect consumers negatively.
For a start, fares for aircon bus and basic rail will be identical as their current fares are quite similar. However, their fares may diverge over time as they are essentially different services with different operating costs and service quality.
Time for you to read up the PublicTransport@SG website to travel smartly.
