Lui Tuck Yew
Singapore
“What they do is that they report to me on a three-monthly basis. After the December 2011 incident, I felt that the way LTA was overseeing the operators needed some improvement. In the past, we were looking at the outcomes and the indicators that we get every so often.”
“SMRT has also combed through the tunnels to ensure that there are no other leaks with water dripping onto trackside installations and will be installing data loggers at all traction power substations within the next two months to better monitor the condition of the insulators.”
“But because we think that actually it could have lasted us longer if it was better maintained over the years, therefore, you also take a discount from what the Government would otherwise have to pay. But the formulas are all set out in the White Paper. I believe I have answered the Member's questions.”
“The tight labour market is, indeed, a challenge for the bus industry. To address this, a multi-pronged strategy is needed. To attract more local bus captains, both operators have raised entry level base monthly salaries by about $400 since the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) commenced in 2012.”
“Over the past three years, there were 355 cases of fare evasion and 162 cases of passengers assaulting taxi drivers. Passengers found guilty of fare evasion may be fined up to $1,000 and repeat offenders may be fined up to $2,000 or jailed for up to six months, or both.”
“The insolvency of Alpine Bau affected the completion timeline of three stations, namely, Tan Kah Kee, Sixth Avenue and King Albert Park, and their associated tunnels.”
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“The digital signboards are usually put up only at a major bus stop where there are many buses calling at it and it is heavily used by commuters.”
“Mdm Speaker, the two Public Transport Operators (PTOs) provide "live" service information on their respective websites and smartphone apps like SBST IRIS and SMRT Connect. In addition, LTA integrates service information from them and makes it available on various platforms for commuters' convenience. For example, it provides one-stop information access through the MyTransport.SG and PublicTransport@SG portals. This is augmented by dissemination through third party smartphone apps such as SG NextBus and SG Buses. LTA also broadcasts service delay information through its TrafficWatch radio announcements and Twitter.”
“Mdm Speaker, as is the case for the initial 550 buses under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP), the Public Transport Operators (PTOs) will hire both local and foreign drivers for the 450 buses under the expanded BSEP that Mr Teo has asked about. However, they prioritise the recruitment of local bus drivers, through a Place-and-Train programme and progressive wage structures, amongst other measures.”
“Do people really want it that way? So I am most happy as much as possible for the average cyclist where I believe it is safer – and I have said it before – they are safest when they are segregated from the motorists who are moving at much higher speeds compared to the average cyclists – let me add – and they are also segregated from pedestrians. Hence, our approach, priority, is to get off-road segregated cycling paths that will allow the cyclists to get to their destinations but also as much as possible to make sure that they do not run into the path of the elderly and the children.”
“Maybe I will complement what Parliamentary Secretary has said with regard to cycling as a target that we should impose on cycling in our modal share. Why do we do it for public transport? Why do we want to move from 63% to 70% by the end of this decade and then 75%? It is because we realise that if we continue on the trajectory that we had in the past where it was actually only in the high 50s, you will require more and more land for roads. And you will need more and more vehicles and then it puts pressure on your COE system, ERP system and congestion overall. Because of those constraints, we felt that with a growing population in land-scarce Singapore where we also want to have more spaces for parks, greenery and roads that are not so close to housing developments, that the only way to achieve that quality of life, that liveable inclusive city, is to move more people away from private transport to mass public transport. I think cycling contributes to public transportation. It contributes in several ways. First, the last and the first mile – bringing people to key nodes, key hubs, running to the town centre, short errands and so on. There is a small number that uses it as their primary mode of transport. The larger numbers that want to go on the road want it as a form of recreation – serious cyclists with beautiful helmets and all the lovely gear and their bikes – but they like to do it on weekends. And as much as possible, we must try and accommodate that by Page: 114 making it safer and so on. But for me to set cycling as a certain percentage of the modal share, I am not so sure that I really see the rationale behind it. If I do set a number, why did I set the number? What does it mean? What am I going to do in order to drive behaviour towards that number?”
“Indeed, Mr Lim is right that we do not allow standing on the PBS buses. In part, this is because of feedback from the rest of commuters who feel that because they are paying a premium, they do not want it to be as congested. We are quite happy to make that change, provided commuters are understanding and supportive of this. We are agnostic as to whether people stand or sit. It is just that people feel that having paid that premium, "I ought to have the space and I ought to get a seat". But we are prepared to relook at that, should there be support for it.”
“Let me start with the last two questions. Firstly, on profits: for buses, no profits because the operators, both of them, are running losses. The SMRT losses on buses are about $30 million dollars; less for SBST, but also still in the red. Next point will be on subsidising profit-making operators. As we have explained on numerous occasions on the BSEP, it is a subsidy to commuters rather than to operators. The operators make no profit out of running the 550 buses. The operators will make no profits running the additional 450 buses. The 550 buses, we have already said, if they have to be paid for by the commuters, it would cost probably in the order of about 15 cents more a trip. The Government decided that in order to introduce capacity quickly and we wanted to frontload that five-year programme and introduce 70% of it by 2014 – of course, now, we are making sure that we will introduce all 550 buses by the end of this year – so, that is subsidy to the commuters; no profit to the operators. It will remain the same in the expanded programme. On the cost of the 450 buses: I think it will be roughly proportionate to what they see for 550 buses. Quite a bit of it is going to be upfront costs. On average, Page: 109 it costs about half a million dollars per bus. For a typical day, in terms of operating cost, it is about $600-$700. QOS standards: the Member may recall that when we introduced the BSEP programme, we left the overall QOS standards the same. We had a separate agreement with the PTOs on the buses and the routes where these buses were introduced to enhance those standards.”
“To some extent, we need to continue to educate motorists to give some priority to the buses where they are exiting the bus bays, so that they continue with their journey. We will want Page: 108 to do more in this regard. Certainly, this is an area that we think has to complement the introduction of more capacity and the recruitment and retention of more drivers.”
“Madam, I thank the Member. That is another good question. The 1,400 buses that I have mentioned earlier, 1,000 are provided for under the Government-funded extended BSEP programme and the other lot makes use of the resources from the private sector. 4.45 pm That is quite a lot of capacity increase: 35% over the existing fleet by 2017. We have got to make sure that we keep speeds for the buses on the roads where it is and, if possible, to increase even further. It is not at the desirable stage right now and it has reached a plateau over the years. We are not increasing the speed; it is just hovering where it is. We will need to put in place more measures over and beyond what we have done. For example, some of the things that we need to continue to do is to identify places where we can span some of the key bus stops and make them into bus hubs, so that instead of two buses pulling in at one time to embark and disembark passengers, we try to make sure that we can have three and four buses doing so simultaneously. This way, the buses do not have to wait in order to come into the bus bay to pick up and disembark passengers. We would like to do more to introduce bus lanes, including full-day bus lanes. We have a plan and we have identified some of the areas where we will progressively roll out more bus lanes and full-day bus lanes. In other areas, we are thinking of expanding the road network, especially in some of the towns. We would like to see some of that converted to bus lanes, so that we give higher priority to the buses. The next thing we are going to do is to put in place at more locations the Mandatory Give Way to Buses scheme. It has worked.”
“On top of that, of course, we add new lines to the system because what will happen over time is that instead of relying only on the six-car East-West Line, by 2017, we would essentially have increased the East-West corridor to a nine-car system with the addition of the Downtown Line. So, over time, it is increasing capacity on the existing Lines and, from the figures that I have shown and enunciated, over the next three years, I think the capacity is well ahead of Page: 107 what we think demand would be, including shifting some of the population to public transport over our longer term vision as well as catering to population growth. Together with the new Lines, I think we are in good shape when they come on board.”
“Mdm Chair, I think that is, indeed, a very good question. First, let me say that in the coming years, supply is going to be ahead of demand and, therefore, it will allow us to address some of the imbalance that we have seen in the early years. We have seen the growth in ridership come down in recent years. And so, last year, the growth in the number of public transport journeys was about 3%. It was growing at about four-plus percent, 5% in earlier years. The train capacities that we are adding, for instance, on the North-South and East-West Lines, we are looking at an additional of 41 trains to the current fleet of 128. So, that is about a one-third growth. That will take place this year and the next batch is coming in 2016. So, it is about one-third growth over the next two or so years. For the North-East Line and Circle Line, as I have mentioned again earlier, we have about 60%-70% increase in the fleet size starting from 2015. That would allow us to run the trains much more frequently than what we are able to do today. For the Bukit Panjang LRT, we have new train cars that are coming in starting at the end of this year. Again, that will result in a 70% capacity increase over the existing fleet size and, likewise, by 2016, we will have made improvements to the Sengkang-Punggol LRT where I think you will remember that we talked about coupling cars together so that instead of running single cars, we can run two cars but over the same system, thereby doubling the capacity. That will take place in 2016.”
“But I also think that beyond this interest, the knowledge and the experience that we have gained over the years with vessel traffic management in the very busy Singapore Straits and the emergency responses plan that we have put in place can contribute to the development of safe and sustainable shipping in the Arctic. And over time, as we see more exploratory activities taking place in that remote part of the earth, I think some of the experience that our offshore companies have built up over time, in Keppel and Sembawang, will also come in very useful. So, in conclusion, Mdm Chair, the Government will continue to work closely with our tripartite partners in developing new infrastructure, capabilities and talent so as to ensure the continuing success of Maritime Singapore. At the same time, we will continue to work through regional and international fora to ensure that the SOMS, as a key waterway for international shipping, remains safe, secure and open. Page: 106”
“Last year, for example, the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) introduced a new Higher NITEC course for Shipping Operations and Services, while the Singapore Management University (SMU) launched a Maritime Economics Concentration for its undergraduates and thereby adding to the slew of tertiary programmes that we have in the maritime field. The take-up has been encouraging, with about 100 students enrolling in these courses. We also continue to groom a core of local seafarers through training schemes, such as the "Place and Train" programmes for aspiring Deck Officers and Marine Engineer Officers. This is important not because we think that they should be serving on board ships until they are 60 years old, but because we need them to have some experience commanding a ship at sea and, thereafter, come ashore to hold jobs in the MPA and in the industry where such sea-going experience is quite critical. So, for the Deck Officers and Marine Engineer Officers, we have been providing support for these programmes and we should see another batch of 40 cadets graduating later this year. And for those who are already in the sector and need to be upgraded through short courses and programmes, we have used our Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF) for Manpower Development to annually provide support to about 4,500 maritime professionals in their training programmes. Finally, let me turn to Mr Charles Chong's question on our involvement in the Arctic Council. As a responsible member of the international maritime community, Singapore takes a strong interest in the development of Arctic shipping and the possible impact of such new shipping routes on maritime trade and the freedom of navigation.”
“Last year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) launched a S$25 million Productivity Programme under its Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF) to support the industry's productivity efforts. Over the next few years, we will focus on key areas, such as our cargo terminal operations, harbour craft operations and that of our ship agencies, which provide services to the ships calling at Singapore. Likewise, innovation is a key enabler for our maritime sector. And we do so by promoting maritime R&D because innovation is such an important aspect of productivity in the maritime field. Since its inception 10 years ago, MPA's Maritime Innovation and Technology (MINT) Fund has supported over 250 maritime R&D projects in areas like port automation systems and clean energy. Recently, MPA topped up the MINT Fund by another $50 million to further support maritime R&D. Finally, we must continually refine and sharpen our maritime policies and schemes to enhance Singapore's attractiveness as a choice maritime centre. These schemes must be business-friendly and relevant to the sector's needs. Central to our development as an IMC is talent. Hence, our fourth and most important strategy is to grow a core of local maritime talent. It is a sector that is employing over 170,000 people, and there is more scope for Singaporeans to take up the many opportunities in this field, not just as seafarers, but also as financiers, insurers, lawyers, brokers and engineers. MPA has been working closely with its tripartite maritime partners to promote maritime careers through outreach activities, such as internship programmes, scholarships and the Singapore Maritime Week held in April each Page: 105 year. We have helped our educational institutions enhance maritime education and training.”
“We have also commenced the development of Tuas Terminal, where we will eventually consolidate all our container port activities in the long term. We are also committed to developing our Port in a safe and sustainable manner. Our vessel traffic management systems are regularly upgraded to support growing port traffic. We are doing more to promote cleaner shipping. We are working with relevant stakeholders to put in place a framework for Singapore to be ready for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering, which is a cleaner alternative to conventional marine fuels. Secondly, as Mr Chong has also highlighted, it is essential that key waterways remain open and secure. This is one of the reasons why Singapore participates actively in the work of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and abides by and advocates Law of the Sea principles that uphold the preservation of navigational safety and freedoms. Page: 104 We partner our neighbours to enhance navigational safety and environmental protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, or SOMS for short. There is the Co-operative Mechanism that has been in place since 2007 that allows the three littoral States, other user States as well as the maritime industry, to work together on areas of common interest – safety of navigation, environmental protection, and so on. One of the key initiatives under the Co-operative Mechanism is the Marine Electronic Highway Project, which aims to improve navigational safety and protection of the marine environment in the SOMS by linking shore-based marine information and communication infrastructure with the corresponding navigational and communication facilities on board transiting ships. Our third strategy is to promote productivity and innovation across the maritime sector.”
“Some of these challenges have affected growth in the sector, not only in Singapore but all over the world. Page: 103 Nonetheless, the maritime sector in Singapore remains robust and our fundamentals are strong. Last year, container throughput grew by about 3% to reach another record high of 32.6 million TEUs. This growth rate is quite similar to other major ports around the world, with the exception of Hong Kong that went into negative growth, and Ningbo which was growing more strongly than ports like Shanghai, Shenzhen and even Singapore. We remained the world's second busiest port, after Shanghai, and the world's top bunkering port. Our maritime sector has consistently contributed about 7% to our GDP, and is also a significant multiplier for the rest of the economy. Our port is a strategic asset providing critical connectivity for our manufacturing industry, giving them a key competitive advantage. Our position as an International Maritime Centre (IMC) provides both a high value-added growth engine for our economy and a source of good jobs for Singaporeans. We are, therefore, committed to investing in the maritime sector. And here, we have a four-pronged strategy to growing this. Firstly, let me begin with infrastructure. We take a long-term view of our Port and will continue to grow port capacity ahead of demand. The expansion of Pasir Panjang Terminal (PPT) is on track and the first set of new berths at PPT will be ready later this year. The PPT will eventually increase our port capacity by about 50% to 50 million TEUs per annum. By introducing the new berths, we are just making sure that we have that capacity ahead of time.”
“Thirdly, as was mentioned by Mr Chong, it is essential that we raise the productivity of airport operations, particularly in light of the tight manpower situation in Singapore. We will introduce self-service facilities and processes in Terminal 4 to validate their feasibility before we adopt them on a larger scale at Terminal 5. Trials of such features are currently underway. CAAS and CAG are also exploring other productivity-enhancing initiatives, such as introducing fixed ground services at the existing and future terminals and remotely-operated aircraft pushback. These will also help to enhance productivity and reduce our reliance on manpower. Such measures will ensure that Changi continues to deliver the efficient and pleasant user experience for which it is renowned while keeping it cost-competitive for airlines. At the same time, we will continue our efforts to develop a larger pool of talent for the aviation sector, which provides many good jobs for Singaporeans. CAAS will step up its outreach programmes to attract more Singaporeans to aviation careers, including in the very important aerospace sector. 4.30 pm In summary, the prospects for the Singapore air hub remain bright. But we cannot take our success for granted. We will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure that Changi remains globally competitive. In turn, this will help Singapore to continue to thrive as a global hub for business and tourism, support the creation of quality jobs for Singaporeans, and make air travel even more accessible and convenient for Singaporeans. Let me reply to the points that have been raised on the maritime sector by Mr Charles Chong. As he has rightly pointed out, there are several challenges that the maritime industry has to grapple with.”
“I am pleased to inform Members that, since then, we have received much useful feedback from the industry. We will take onboard this feedback and refine the Concept Plan that will guide the long-term expansion of Changi Airport. We aim to reveal the Concept Plan later this year. In the meantime, the most critical work is to operationalise a three-runway system at Changi. This has commenced. We are now moving into the land preparation phase. Land preparation will take a significant amount of time as we have found from recently-completed extensive tests that the soil condition onsite is very much poorer than expected. We expect to appoint a contractor to carry out the land preparation works around the middle of this year. Based on current plans, we are still targeting for the three-runway system to be completed around the early 2020s. In the interim period, CAAS will work with various stakeholders to optimise the capacity of the existing two runways to ensure that we can continue to accommodate growth without compromising safety. Page: 102 Increasing airport capacity is not achieved just through runways and terminals alone. Enhancement of procedural capabilities and processes are equally important. To this end, we recently inaugurated the new Singapore Air Traffic Control Centre which features a truly state-of-the-art LORADS III air traffic management system that is able to accommodate significantly higher air traffic. CAAS has also embarked on a $200 million Air Traffic Management Centre of Excellence initiative and this will result in significant optimisation and expansion of Changi's air traffic capacity over the coming years.”
“This will enable airlines to launch new city links and increase frequencies on existing ones, thereby ensuring that Changi continues to enjoy superior connectivity, and improving the value proposition for passengers and airlines. Page: 101 For example, the expansion of the Singapore-Indonesia Air Services Agreement (ASA) last year resulted in a 40% increase in the number of weekly flights between the two countries. This made travel between Singapore and Indonesia even easier and enhanced our position as the leading gateway to Southeast Asia. We also expanded six other existing Air Services Agreements and concluded nine new ones in 2013, bringing our total number of air services agreements to over 120. The Changi Airport Group (CAG) will continue working with airlines to encourage them to take advantage of these ASAs and to add new routes and flights judiciously at Changi. Another important strategy to ensure Changi's continued success is to expand our infrastructure ahead of demand. In this regard, 2013 was an important milestone as CAG broke ground for the new Terminal 4 and unveiled plans for Project Jewel, the mixed-use complex to be built in front of Terminal 1, utilising the three hectare plot that is currently occupied by the open air car park. In these plans, we have taken the requirements of both passengers and airlines into consideration. For example, Terminal 4 will be designed to facilitate quick aircraft turnaround, in line with the operating models of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) and airlines operating regional services. The Prime Minister also announced the longer-term plan for a new Terminal 5 during last year's National Day Rally with an initial capacity of 50 million passengers per annum.”
“Mdm Chair, first, may I echo Mr Charles Chong in saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones that are most affected and impacted by the MH370 incident, and that Singapore will continue to provide all meaningful assistance in any possible way that we can. Both Mr Cedric Foo and Mr Charles Chong highlighted the performance of Changi Airport versus that of competing airports and asked about our plans to ensure Changi's continued competitiveness. As noted, 2013 was another record year for Changi, which handled 53.7 million passengers, 5% more than 2012. We were the second-ranked airport in Asia by international passenger volume. For airfreight volumes, they registered a slight increase of 0.8%, a reversal from the 1.6% contraction in 2012 and a fair performance relative to the 1% contraction seen within the Asia Pacific region. Some of our competitor airports have, indeed, grown more quickly, but I think we cannot expect to be growing at such rates, nor is it desirable. If we grow at 18% each year like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, we will need to double airport capacity every four to five years, which is not sustainable, given our land and manpower constraints. Our emphasis is to try and achieve sustainable, quality growth. On this score, Changi remains well-positioned to ride on the strong growth of air travel demand within Asia Pacific where the International Air Transport Association or IATA has projected passenger traffic to grow by 5.7% annually over the next few years. For 2014 and the rest of this decade, we anticipate passenger growth at Changi to continue at an annual rate of about 4% to 6%. We have a three-pronged strategy to ensure that Changi remains the premier air hub for the region. First, we will continue to pursue a liberal aviation policy.”
“In our Land Transport Master Plan, we set ourselves the goal of achieving 75% public transport mode share by 2030, up from about 63% today. We are committed to this goal, we are working hard Page: 63 to develop a much more extensive, well-connected and integrated public transport system that can persuade the public to use it as their main mode of travel and which can be the keystone of our overall vision for a more sustainable and car-less transport network. But even as we work towards this long-term vision, we are also seeking solutions to the real problems that commuters face today. I recognise that there is still a gap in what commuters expect of us and their experience on the ground. We are improving reliability, increasing bus and rail capacity where we can, and as quickly as we can, so that we can sustain the level of service expected of a First-World public transport system. We are committed to developing a transport system that we can all be proud of, a transport system that is an important part of our greater vision to build a liveable and endearing home for Singaporeans.”
“This is because once we tell the PTOs that any future profits that they may make would be taken away, their behaviour will change. They would have less incentive to be efficient and productive. If we move to a cost-plus model where whatever cost they incur we will pay for it, together with a small margin, it would change their behaviours quite drastically. We are not alone in taking this approach of having commercial entities run public transport operations. Sydney is a very interesting study because they had been privatising their bus industry. Part of it is run by unionised public operators, so-called "nationalised system"; and part of it has been transiting to being run by privatised entities. Their comparison is that the private operators were able to operate at 20% to 30% lower cost than the public operators. That is quite a significant number. The Hong Kong MTR, which our operators are often compared to, is also a good example of a privatised operator that has done well – reliable system and fares, very much comparable to what we have here in Singapore. Before I conclude, let me quickly update Mr Pritam Singh and other interested Members of this House on the Rapid Transit System (RTS) link to Johor Bahru. The preliminary engineering study with Malaysia has been completed. We are working with Malaysia to finalise the alignment and the station location in Johor and then to commence the second part of the study which will focus on the detailed design of the system. The second part of the study, like that of the first phase, will be equally co-funded by both sides. Mdm Chairperson, please let me conclude. At MOT, we do have an exciting vision for our public transport system.”
“95% of the trips that are made every day on the rail network do not experience a delay of more than five minutes. But having said all that, it really does not mean that we are not raising service levels. For instance, we have tightened MRT operating standards and improved the service levels for buses, as I have shared earlier. We also have a unified fare structure that is applicable for the entire public transport system and we would have to unravel this if we want to give differentiated fare increases to different PTOs on account of different service quality issues. That is another point to bear in mind. Some Singaporeans have also asked why we should raise fares when the two PTOs continue to make profits. We are mindful that the PTOs should not be earning excessive profits at the expense of commuters. I have compiled a slide just to share what the profit numbers have been like over the last five years. [Please refer to Annex 8.] And, indeed, when they look at it, there has been quite a significant drop in recent years for the overall profit levels for both Page: 62 SMRT, which is the line on top, and SBST. For them, the most recent financial year numbers have dropped by more than half compared to five years ago. Our public transport system is based on shared responsibilities between commuters, the PTOs and the Government. We seek a balance where the public transport system remains financially viable for our PTOs but fares are kept affordable for all commuters. 2.15 pm Mr R Dhinakaran has asked if we should operate our PTOs as non-profit organisations. While the suggestion to remove this profit incentive from the PTOs is indeed a tempting one, we also have to think about whether there are possible adverse outcomes.”
“They will get their cards in July, but, in the meantime, we will give them vouchers of $30 and $80 for the three-month period between April, where fares go up, and July when they get their cards. For those who require even more transport assistance beyond this, about $7.5 million will be withdrawn from the Public Transport Fund to fund the vouchers for this year. So far, about 100,000 applications for the vouchers have been received since it started about a week ago. In total, together with the enhanced concession schemes, like for polytechnic students, about one million commuters are expected to benefit from both the new as well as the enhanced schemes. There may be others who will benefit from the public transport vouchers. I want to assure the House that we are watching this very carefully, and that the Government is committed to make sure that fares remain affordable for all Singaporeans. Some have asked why fares have to be increased, especially when service is still below expectations. I think this is a point that Mr Gerald Giam has brought up and also made a suggestion that we should link service quality directly to the fare formula. The Fare Review Mechanism Committee has considered this, and Mr Cedric Foo also has commented on it and concluded that the issue of service level is best addressed separately outside of the fare formula, where the Government can directly regulate and work with the operators to improve the overall service levels. Overall, this is a sensible and practical approach. Even as Mr Foo has mentioned, certainly there are disruptions that impact commuters but, as I have also mentioned in previous Parliamentary Questions (PQ) replies, about 99.95% of the daily trips do not suffer any service delay of more than five minutes. So, 99.”
“So far, our current system has done well to keep fares affordable. First, let us start with a comparison of our fares versus that of other major cities around the world like Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo. I think you can see it for yourselves [Please refer to Annex 5.] We have given the cost for a bus trip over 10 km, train over 10 km, and a hybrid trip. Because we have a distance-based fare, obviously, our fares remain the same whatever mode and no matter how many transfers you make. But beyond this international comparison which is important, the Public Transport Council (PTC) also tracks the affordability of our fares on an annual basis. For a typical family in the second quintile, or from the 21st to 40th percentage points, which we use as a proxy for the average household taking public transport, the proportion of their household income spent on public transport has declined steadily, from 3.7% to 2.6% in 2012 [Please refer to Annex 6.] So, that is for a second quintile family. For the lower-income groups, we also track the second decile. This is from the 11th to 20th percentage points, and this is the same group that Deputy Prime Minister Tharman used in his Budget address. Their proportion of expenditure on public transport has likewise declined from 5.3% to 4.1% [Please refer to Annex 7.] Therefore, when you look at this, you do know that with the rising salary levels, expenditure on public transport has come down and fares have generally become more affordable. But we know that there are some groups, like the people with disabilities, lower-wage workers seeking employment, for which public transport fares Page: 61 might still be a difficulty. Hence, the Government decided to fund two new concession schemes for these groups, starting April of this year.”
“We will provide additional infrastructure to support this expanded programme, such as the recently completed Taman Jurong roadside terminal, the bus parks at Woodlands and Upper Changi Road East, and the upcoming depots at Jurong West and Loyang. The public bus operators will continue to manage the interchange operations and, where required, lease berth spaces to private bus operators running our bus services. There are, indeed, complications that come with competitive tendering, which we have been experimenting on a limited basis with the CDS and Peak Period Short Service routes. We are using these tenders to help us better understand the feasibility of extending bus tendering to the rest of the bus network which we are committed to do. LTA has been exploring the introduction of greater Page: 60 contestability in the bus industry, including the possibility of a contracting model. At the right time, we will share more about this. To round up on buses, Mr Gan Thiam Poh mentioned the example of Taichung in providing free bus travel. The idea is novel, although not entirely new to us. For instance, free travel was offered on Bus Service 49 last year, on its first day of launch. This was really at the behest of Mr Ang Wei Neng, because his CCC suggested it. And we said, "Why don't we partner each other, and your CCC chip in and help bear some of the costs?" They were willing to do so and so we did. We are prepared to consider similar promotions on basic bus services, if the community is willing to come in and partner us; we co-fund them so that residents can try out the new services for free on the first one or two days when a new service is introduced. Finally, let me turn to the issue of public transport affordability.”
“We have observed that on some long trunk routes, only a very small proportion of commuters remain on board the bus for the entire route; most would alight at mid-point, at major transport nodes or popular destinations. Indeed, these points to the possibility of re-configuring the longer routes and we will certainly consider her suggestion carefully as part of the longer term bus route planning. One option obviously is to see how we can shorten these routes. But there are options that could be further studied, which does not result in the complete removal of the long bus route, but instead to introduce shorter variants, to augment the parts of the route that are most popular and most heavily used, so that buses arrive at these segments more regularly. As Mr Seng Han Thong and Dr Lily Neo have rightly pointed out, these bus improvements are contingent on being able to recruit and retain enough bus drivers, especially in a tight labour market. We have been watching the recruitment efforts of the operators very, very closely. Both have raised salaries and implemented progressive salaries such that the bus captains get higher salaries as they deepen their experience and skills, and take on expanded job scopes. This helps to attract more people to join the industry, and over the past year, the number of bus captains has increased by 5% for SBST and 6.5% for SMRT. We will look at more measures and explore them, including funding support to cover the start-up costs involved in recruiting and the initial period of training for new bus drivers before they are operational and can be deployed to the fleet. To Mr Seng Han Thong's concern over the capacity of our bus infrastructure, it is indeed a challenge.”
“Second, we want to improve feeder bus frequencies during the peak periods. As I mentioned, this is important to our overall bus-rail hub and spoke system. We will reduce the scheduled maximum intervals for all feeder services to between six to eight minutes. Even for those that are currently serving at six to eight minutes, there may be room to do more, so that it comes more frequently, but is also less crowded. With more buses under the expanded BSEP and more resources from private bus operators, we can increase the total number of buses deployed for existing feeder services by about 60%, compared to before the BSEP programme was first introduced. This actually is quite a significant change. If I were to sum it all up, with the buses from the Government, with whatever we are using from the private operators, we will increase the total capacity of our bus system by about 1,400 buses, or about 35% more than the original, within the period of about five years, 2012 into 2017. The expanded BSEP, just like the original, will be funded by the Government and not from fare increases. It will follow the same regime that we have for the BSEP which we talked about earlier. It will continue to draw from the $1.1 billion Bus Service Enhancement Fund (BSEF). Clearly, the fund will now no longer be sufficient to last for the originally envisaged duration of 10 years for the 550 buses. But I know it will be sufficient to Page: 59 last the next few years and we will carry out a review of this fund at the appropriate time. I thank Dr Lily Neo for her suggestion to further improve the reliability of buses by shortening long bus routes.”
“Four of these services will be launched in the second quarter in Woodlands, Boon Lay, Bedok and Ang Mo Kio. Overall, I think commuters are happy with the BSEP. I hear Er Dr Lee Bee Wah's call to provide more bus resources to meet the growing demand arising from more and more BTOs. I will come to this in a while, but I just wanted to Page: 58 say that we have, at my last count, introduced 35 buses into Nee Soon GRC to augment existing services as well as to introduce three new services. Many of them, not all, but most of them, in fact, I think also serve Nee Soon South. That is about slightly more than 10% of the buses that we have introduced so far. We recognise of course that there are more and more BTOs coming up, and rest assured that there are plans to make sure that we are going to introduce new services and buses in tandem with these projects. I have asked LTA to work with the bus operators to further expand our BSEP programme. I intend to introduce another 450 or so buses over the next three years, on top of the 550 buses under the BSEP programme that I mentioned in COS 2012. This will bring the total number of Government-funded buses under the BSEP programme, with this expansion, to about 1,000 buses. We intend to implement a bulk of this by 2016. This expansion will focus on two objectives. First, we want to introduce more new services. We will double the number of new routes from 40 under the original BSEP to 80 new routes under this expanded programme. This will help LTA to respond to requests such as that made by Mr Lim Biow Chuan, and I think they have been in discussion not only to just introduce a new service, but to try and also extend one of the existing services to better serve the Tanjong Rhu residents.”
“Mr Gan Thiam Poh mentioned this point and I would like to let him know that the response to all 10 CDS tenders has been encouraging and we have received competitive bids from the private bus operators. By running more buses at higher frequencies, we have significantly reduced the number of persistently crowded services across the island. I thought what would be useful is to show Members half-yearly snapshots of where we were and where we are now. This is something that we monitor – in fact, we monitor more than this. This shows average loadings across the island during a peak one-hour period, and it is a moving one-hour period [Please refer to Annex 3.] "Red" shows where the crowdedness is higher, at 80%. Our commitment is to lower it to below 85%, and we use 80% as an early warning indicator of where we should pay particular attention to. So, this is a heat map in July 2012, and it is not only MEWR that is showing you "hotspots", even MOT monitors "hotspots" of a different kind. 2.00 pm We move forward to January 2013 – some improvement. June 2013 is slightly better, and then now we have January 2014 [Please refer to Annex 4.] What Members can see is that it changes. Sometimes areas that were "yellow" previously, become "red". The "reds", of course, we hope to move it to "yellow", and then to "green". But what it tells us is to pay particular attention to certain areas, plan to add new buses to it, so that we can address some of these issues that arise and it is a dynamic situation. To further improve feeder services, we will introduce 15 Peak Period Short Services (PPSS), which overlap critical stretches of the existing feeder services, but specially targeted at the most crowded stretches, and also to further reduce waiting times during the peak hours.”
“We planned to stage it over five years, front loaded in the first three years, but I think what we have been able to do is to work with them, recruit more drivers, buy more buses and we are confident that we can deliver all 550 of these buses by the end of this year – two years ahead of schedule. So far, we have delivered about 320 of these buses. They have added 2,200 additional trips every week across 125 existing services. Peak hour loading has improved, and scheduled intervals between buses have decreased by about one to five minutes on average. These are the Government-funded buses. Of the 550, 320 have been introduced. The PTOs themselves have contributed about 100 more buses to meet additional ridership, out of the 250 to which they had earlier committed over the five-year period. It is roughly about 50 buses a year and they have kept to their commitment. We have also added 24 new routes to our network, in part by augmenting these new routes with resources from private bus operators. Mr Ang Wei Neng spoke about the City Direct services (CDS) of which seven have already been introduced to provide direct connections between the heartlands and the CBD during the peak periods. There is a difference between the City Direct Service (CDS) and the Premium Bus Service (PBS) that Mr Ang mentioned. PBS targets a niche market Page: 57 of commuters who are prepared to pay more for guaranteed seats, and in fact some of the feedback is: why do the operators allow people to stand when I have paid more to get a guaranteed seat and I expect the aisle to be free next to me. I believe that there is still going to be a role for PBS even as we roll out CDS. So far, the seven CDS have been well-received, and three more will be implemented in the coming months.”
“London Underground took about 150 years and the New York City Subway about 110 years to get to where they are today. If our rail network expansion goes according to plan, in about 15 years, our rail network density will be comparable. By 2030, our public transport system will be much more extensive and much more accessible. We will have some 280 train stations, about double the number that we have today, scattered across the island and eight in 10 homes Page: 56 will be within a 10-minute walk to a rail station. The most important thing is not so much about rail density, even though we are comparable. The most important thing is how close am I to a railway station and how do I get there. Is it walking? Is it cycling? Is it by feeder bus? That is the part that I will move on to next, because buses connect us to not only the final destination but also plays an important part in our hub-and-spoke network. We have made good progress with our Bus Service Enhancement Programme – some Members have commented on it – since its introduction about 18 months ago. I mentioned earlier in the survey that satisfaction with bus services rose and it went from about 86.4% in 2012 to 88.3% in 2013. It is generally a reflection that the improvements are being felt by commuters on the ground. Mr Cedric Foo, Mr Gan Thiam Poh and Dr Lily Neo, amongst others, have asked for an update on the BSEP. LTA together with the bus operators have worked hard to deliver the programme ahead of the initial schedule.”
“We need to do it safely but most importantly, I seek Members' support to help your residents understand that in order for us to get it up quickly, sometimes there is a bit of noise, road diversions and inconvenience, so bear with us while we try and expedite these works as much as possible. We remain on track for our rail building plans. Last December, we opened Downtown Line (DTL) Stage 1. In the coming years, by mid-2016 and end-2017, we will open up Downtown Line Stages 2 and 3 as well as extensions to the NSEWL. For Punggol residents, the Punggol West LRT will open in the middle of this year. As these new lines open, what we will see is that the crowdedness on the existing stretches of the network should improve as we decant some of the current commuters onto the new lines. So, by mid-2016, residents along Bukit Timah, Bukit Panjang and some parts of Bukit Batok will be able to ride the DTL2 directly into the city; and in 2017, those living along the Bedok, Ubi, MacPherson stretch would likewise be able to use DTL 3. Hopefully, we will see a lessening of the load on the East-West Lines. As the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line come up towards the end of decade and early into next decade, we will see improvements also along the Northern corridor. Some academics have pointed out that the key difference between our MRT system and those of cities like Tokyo, New York, London and so on is that ours does not seem to have much redundancy, which means that the impact of an unexpected train disruption is disproportionately large. I agree with them. A denser network, with more interconnections will provide more alternatives for commuters to explore in the event of a disruption.”
“Just as importantly, the larger train fleet will also allow the operators to intensify their maintenance work to prepare the older trains for re-signalling and upgrade them more quickly. From next year, 42 new trains will join the NEL and CCL and these will increase their existing fleets by about 70% and 60% respectively. What it will mean is that in 2015, we can gradually look forward to more comfortable, less crowded rides and shorter wait times for NEL and CCL commuters. Across the network, we are also requiring the operators to increase train frequencies under the tightened OPS, that I mentioned earlier, so that by the third quarter of this year, passengers travelling on the NSEWL and NEL generally will not need to wait more than five minutes for trains to arrive, except for the very early morning and very late in the night periods when train ridership is extremely low. Similarly, the waiting times for CCL will also improve to less than five minutes across most of the days when more trains are delivered in 2015. For residents in Bukit Panjang, I would like to share that the first of 13 new trains is arriving and will be ready for service in the fourth quarter of this year, and all of them will be fully delivered and deployed by mid-2015, and that should increase the existing fleet size by about 70%. Page: 55 As we add capacity to existing lines, we are also adding new lines to the system. By 2030, we will double the rail network to 360 km. One of the LTA engineers recently told me that there are 25 of these tunnel-boring machines currently in operation at any one time, digging and digging away and tunnelling below us. There is a lot that is happening underground and we are trying to get the new rail lines as fast as we can.”
“They have tried it out at several places, Bishan and Tampines, and the post-implementation noise measurement shows that the barriers have been able to bring down the noise of passing trains by at least about five decibels. I am pleased to announce that by improving coordination with some of the other track renewal and upgrading projects, we will be able to accelerate the noise barrier programme which was earlier slated for completion at the end of 2020. I am bringing this forward to 2019. On top of that, we will also be able to bring forward more of the works for completion by 2016. Originally, this was 10 km by 2016. We are now able to push that up to 14 km. LTA will announce the Page: 54 locations of the additional 4 km shortly. LTA will also finalise the locations for the remaining 6 km, and will announce them in due course. Let me now move on to the other issues of train capacity. In reply to Mr Cedric Foo's question, we are indeed increasing rail capacity. To relieve crowding on existing lines, we have purchased more trains. There is a fleet of 13 new trains that are being delivered for the NSEWL in 2014, of which four have already entered revenue service. These trains allow us to immediately insert more trips during the peak periods, to provide additional capacity and shorten the wait for a train within the limits of the existing signalling system. The existing signalling system limitation is 120 seconds interval between trains, and in some instances, we are not able to do that further. In other stretches, we can do so. As more trains arrive over the next few months, we will continue to inject more into the system, targeting especially the crowded stretches for the morning peak and we will also have more resources to increase the evening capacity.”
“When we do a like-for-like comparison between Singapore system reliability versus what the Member has quoted of the New York Subway reliability, our reliability in 2013 is considerably better. It is one delay longer than five minutes in every 456,000 car-km for us across the whole network, compared to one in about 247,000 car-km for New York's full year figure for 2013. So, the article, and the allegation that our system is significantly less reliable than the New York City Subway, are incorrect. We are also upgrading the ageing infrastructure because track infrastructure also plays a very important role in contributing to overall reliability. We are replacing sleepers and the third rail of the NSEWL to improve train speeds, reliability and comfort, and we will do so by mid-2015 for the North-South Line and end-2016 for the East-West Line. That is sleepers as well as the third rail, from which trains draw power. We are also changing out the signalling system by 2016 for the North-South Line and 2018 for the East-West Line to further improve signalling reliability. More importantly, it will allow us to run 20% more trains during peak hours. These are three major works that we are doing on the track side – sleepers, the third rail and signalling system. And I will come now to the complementary work of building noise barriers. We are taking the opportunity, as we do these track works, to build some 20 km of noise barriers along elevated MRT tracks. These will help to minimise the disturbance from the noise of passing trains for residents living near these tracks. Mr Cedric Foo and Mr Ang Hin Kee asked about the progress of this programme.”
“Tighter Operating Performance Standards (OPS) have also been in place, since the start of this year. The operators are now held accountable for short delays, even if they do not lead to service disruptions. In response to Mr Png Eng Huat's question on how service quality is measured, well, we monitor the occurrence of all service delays that lasted about five minutes or more, to reflect their impact on the commuters. Even if these faults causing the delays are addressed relatively quickly, anything that causes a delay – which means a train stopping till when it starts again – anything more than five minutes, we will monitor this. 1.45 pm Sometimes, this can happen as a result of train withdrawals; and sometimes, it is as a result of track problems. It is not that all service delays are caused by the trains alone. The operators, to their credit, have improved the way they are able to offload the passengers and to move a train out of the way so that sometimes, it happens within a five-minute window. But it is still a train withdrawal and not a service delay of five minutes. We have to measure both because they impact the commuters in different ways. And today, I have shown Members only the train withdrawal because that is something that we are paying quite a lot of attention to. What we measure is normalised against the total train-km operated, which is quite different from the metric that is based on car-km used by the New York City Subway, which Dr Lily Neo had mentioned earlier. I think she was quoting from a Straits Times' article in February. So, ours is a train-km measurement Page: 53 and theirs is a car-km measurement. On our six-car systems, one train-km is equal to six car-km, and on the Circle Line, one train-km is equal to three car-km.”
“In addition to life-cycle monitoring, the operators will need to also put in place real-time condition monitoring systems that will alert them early to potential problems that may arise within our system. For example, SMRT has adopted new technologies such as the Wheel Impact Load Detection (WILD) System and what this does is that it allows early detection of abnormal vibrations. We know that this is important because this was one of the contributory factors to the December 2011 incidents and its engineers can rectify them in a more timely manner. In particular, we need to focus on reducing train disruptions during the morning peak hours because these cause the greatest inconvenience to the most commuters. The most important checks are done in the wee hours prior to deploying the fleet in the morning. The operators must enhance their night time maintenance works and conduct more stringent checks on the condition Page: 52 of the trains, just before they are launched into revenue service. We are complementing these measures with tighter regulation and higher penalties. As Members are aware – and some Members have mentioned – we recently raised the maximum penalty for poor service performance to 10% of the revenue for the affected rail line, or $1 million, whichever is higher. We will consider carefully Mr Foo's suggestion of compensating commuters inconvenienced by service disruptions with fare credits for future trips. But I think it is necessary to bear in mind that it is not so straightforward to identify exactly who should be eligible for compensation because this will potentially include those commuters who detour using alternative routes, as well as those who have decided to use an alternative mode of transport or forgo their journey entirely.”
“We estimate that Page: 51 SMRT and SBST have increased their annual repair and maintenance expenditure for its rail lines by about 65% and 35% respectively, over the past two years [Please refer to Annex 2.] Taking into account the expanded network and more trains being operated, it is still a very sizable increase. I thank Dr Lily Neo and Mr Seng Han Thong for raising the importance of predictive maintenance. Indeed, we are taking a more pro-active, "Predict and Prevent" approach towards the maintenance of our rail system. Our operators are strengthening their maintenance regimes to actively monitor the condition of their assets, to predict where the problems are most likely to occur, and to take pre-emptive steps where required. This is one aspect of it. The other aspect of "Predict and Prevent" is to look to those who are operating older systems. Our system today is about 25 to 30 years old. And if we are to anticipate the problems that will come up when the system is 35 years old, then we need to look at those who are operating or who have experience operating such systems. Or, to go to the equipment providers who have trains that are already 35 years old operating in other regimes and to find out the problems that may well arise when our system ages even further. To put predictive maintenance into practice, we also need to monitor the conditions of the rail equipment over their entire life-cycles, to ensure that ageing equipment are replaced or upgraded before they start to fail. Hence, it is important not only to look to our own data, but to look at the data that other people may have. This is what we mean by a "whole-life asset management framework".”
“Last year, normalised train withdrawal rates fell by at least 25% for the North-South-East-West Lines (NSEWL), North East Line (NEL) and Circle Line (CCL). These are train withdrawal rates [Please refer to Annex 1.] I have decided not to include also the service delays of greater than five minutes which I have shared on previous occasions so as not to overly complicate the situation. Members can see what the trend is like. I think we can do much better. The setback that we had seen over the first two months of this year is certainly a stark reminder that when we try to improve the reliability of the train system, it is a lengthy and painstaking journey, even while the overall trend on train withdrawals shows that we are moving in the right direction. Members like Mr Cedric Foo, Mr Seng Han Thong, Dr Lily Neo and Er Dr Lee Bee Wah have also stressed the importance of reducing the frequency of service disruptions and asked about our plans to improve overall rail reliability. This year, our goal for NSEWL is to bring down the withdrawal rates by about another 20%, to 1.8 withdrawals for every 100,000 train-km by the end of this year, down from 3.3 at its peak in 2012, and 2.2 in 2013. Our goal, by 2016, is that we should be better than where we were in 2008. So, this year, to continue the downward trend to 1.8 and, by 2016, to bring it down to better than where it was in 2008. Reliability improvements will take time. Both operators have ramped up their engineering capabilities and processes, hired more engineers and significantly increased investment in maintenance, and so on.”
“Mdm Chairperson, as usual, Members of this House have been generous with their questions and feedback on public transport. So, let me try my utmost to respond to some of the issues that have been raised. The latest Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS), which UniSIM conducts every year, showed that Singaporeans' overall satisfaction with our public transport was 88.5% in 2013, similar to the 88.8% in 2012. Satisfaction with rail services dipped while that for bus services improved. On Page: 50 rail services, I am keenly aware of the issues to be fixed. My priority is to address reliability and capacity waiting times and I will go into that in some detail. Mr Cedric Foo has asked for an update on the progress of the LTA and Public Transport Operators' (PTOs') implementation of the Committee of Inquiry (COI's) recommendations. We have, through the establishment of the Joint Teams after the COI, implemented almost all of them and gone beyond some of the recommendations that they have made. Over the last two years, I think we have seen some results and I will share that with Members in a moment. And with your permission, Mdm Chairperson, may I, therefore, display some slides to illustrate?”
“Over-projections of vehicle deregistrations in COE quota years 2008 and 2009 under the previous quota methodology have consistently been clawed back since April 2010. The claw-back was deferred for one year from August 2012 to July 2013, as a one-off measure to ease the Page: 126 transition to a lower vehicle growth rate. There will be no further deferment of the claw-back.”
“Specifically for the Choa Chu Kang area, more buses have been added to Service 975 under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP). SMRT has also added more trips for Service 300. In addition, Service 982E, a new route, was introduced in March 2013 to provide residents travelling to the CBD with an alternative to the MRT during the peak period. We will continue to monitor the situation and introduce new bus services or re-route existing ones to serve the new BTO developments, as Page: 169 necessary, and in tandem with the increase in population in the estate. Choa Chu Kang residents can also look forward to the additional capacity for the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL), with 13 more trains to be added this year and another 28 trains by 2016. Thirteen train-cars will also be added to the Bukit Panjang LRT this year.”
“It is not practical to require every single person who wants to ride a bicycle to first have mandatory third-party insurance or to go through compulsory training. Cycling proficiency programmes in other countries, such as Bikeability in the United Kingdom and AustCycle in Australia, are also voluntary. Our approach is to impart the relevant knowledge on safe road use to different groups of cyclists through targeted platforms, such as talks and exhibitions at community events and in schools.”
“In 2013, LTA added 25 km of bus lanes, including full-day bus lanes, primarily within the CBD area, bringing the total to 203 km of bus lanes island-wide. LTA also expanded the Mandatory Give Way to Buses scheme to 27 bus stops in 2013, bringing the total to about 200. Bus speeds have stayed steady at a monthly average of 17.3 km/hour in 2013, at a time when the overall bus fleet and number of bus services have increased. However, the current bus speeds are still below optimal. Therefore, we would be wary of allowing more vehicle types, such as taxis, to use the bus Page: 148 lanes, given the adverse impact on bus speeds.”
“The number of speeding violations at that location mentioned has increased to about 55 per day in January 2014, compared to about 30 per day in October last year. LTA will add two pairs of "Reduce Speed Now" signs per direction along the stretches approaching that location, in addition to the existing signs and road markings, to remind motorists to comply with the 70km/h speed limit.”
“In its applications to the Public Transport Council (PTC), SMRT indicated that overall operating costs for their bus and train operations had increased by almost 30% between 2010 and 2012. This is largely attributed to an increase of about 35% in their energy costs, and about 28% increase in manpower costs arising from additional recruitment and salary increments. Increased expenditure to maintain an ageing MRT network, and for mid-life refurbishment of the trains and infrastructure, has also impacted their finances. Similarly, SBS Transit informed that their operating costs increased by almost 8% between 2011 and 2012, with manpower seeing the most significant increase of over 11%. In the first nine months of 2013, rising costs for the North-East Line, and start-up costs for the new Downtown Line, have resulted in their Page: 146 train operations going into the red. Both operators also highlighted the growing losses in their bus business.”
“Nevertheless, we are mindful that average spending patterns of average income households are not necessarily reflective of the impact of public transport fares on all Singaporeans and, hence, we will also focus on what we can do to help the lower-income groups, as well as specific disadvantaged commuter groups, through various new and enhanced concession schemes.”
“If we look at a typical journey of, say, 10 km bus-only or train-only, such a journey would cost between about $1.15 and $1.42 in Hong Kong, $1.89 and $1.99 in Tokyo, and $2.23 and $2.98 in London. On the other hand, such a journey in Singapore costs1 a commuter $1.27 on an air-con bus, or on the North-South-East-West Line, and $1.52 on the premium rail lines. For a 10-km journey that combines two 5-km trips on a bus and train, commuters in Singapore would not pay more because we have adopted a distance fare system. In contrast, a similar journey2 with 5 km on bus and 5 km on train in other cities would typically cost more, for example, $2.11 in Hong Kong, $3.58 in Tokyo and $5.21 in London. In short, our fares are significantly cheaper than those in London and Tokyo, and comparable to Hong Kong's for a bus-only or train-only journey, but, for journeys with transfers, we are cheaper. These figures are in Singapore dollars and have been adjusted for purchasing power parity. Taking the typical public transport user household, that is, those in the second quintile of income distribution, such households spent an average of 2.6% of their monthly household income on public transport in 2012. Based on the latest figures we have, we estimate median income households in Hong Kong spent close to 4% of their household income on bus, train and tram fares Page: 145 in 20103. This is prior to their fare increases by 2.2% in 2011, 5.4% in 2012 and 2.7% in 2013.”
“SMRT was fined a total of $2.2 million for incidents occurring in 2011; $0.5 million for incidents occurring in 2012; and $0.36 million for incidents occurring in 2013. SBST was fined $0.4 million for incidents occurring in 2012; and $0.25 million for incidents occurring in 2013. Page: 143 As publicly-listed companies, the public transport operators (PTOs) account for all regulatory penalties in their annual reports and income statements. The Public Transport Council (PTC) does not consider the financial penalties imposed on the PTOs when deciding on fare adjustments. The fare adjustment quantum is determined using the fare formula, which is based on macroeconomic indicators, such as the Core-Consumer Price Index, Wage Index, Energy Index and a Productivity Extraction component. The fare formula clearly does not allow the PTOs to pass on the cost of financial penalties to commuters through higher fares.”