In a muddle over fare changes

[metalslug]

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100816-0000014/In-a-muddle-over-fare-changes

In a muddle over fare changes
Why is the new system so complex that public transport commuters are flummoxed?

by Conrad Raj 05:55 AM Aug 16, 2010

When the concept of distanced-based fares was first raised some years ago, many thought it would be a blessing for all those who had to change from bus to train or vice versa. People were promised cheaper fares as the transfer penalty was to be eliminated.

Alas, the reality when the scheme kicked in in July was a disappointment as quite a few, including many senior citizens, had to cough up more.

What was even more disappointing was that the fare system became even more complex and there appeared to be a lack of clarity in its computation. As a result, complaints to the media of overcharging poured in.

Simple logic would have it that if the transfer penalty was removed, then the new fares should be lower than the previous cost of the same journey. Even if they had remained the same as before, few would have complained.

Indeed, the Public Transport Council's (PTC) assurance was that over 60 per cent of commuters would save 48 cents a week or see no change in their weekly public transport expenditure.

A number of commuters, however, worked out the extra they had to pay on specific trips to the last cent (albeit with the help of the fare calculator provided by the authorities), and aired their disappointment to the media.

Second Minister for Transport Lim Hwee Hwa urged people to examine their overall travel pattern instead of complaining about the extra charges. She called on them to take the longer-term view as more MRT lines were being built and bus routes amended to provide more choices and flexibility.

"In due course, with more choices to come, I'm sure they will benefit as well," she said.

But why charge more before the new services are introduced? Why do I have to pay extra now for promises of the future?

Then Today reader Dennis Puk Leong Kong discovered that some commuters had been paying more than what they should have for the distance travelled.

The Land Transport Authority admitted to more than a dozen discrepancies in distance-based fares after checks were done with the public transport operators. This includes commuters on the Circle Line and the North East Line.

The errors were rectified by the end of last month. But surely with the resources at hand, that many mistakes should not have happened.

The PTC has now disclosed that travelling time - and not just distance - is also used to charge train commuters under Singapore's distance-based fares system.

"The general fare-setting principle for MRT lines is to charge for the distance travelled based on the fastest route. This takes into account the walking and waiting time required if a switch to another rail line is involved," it said.

So isn't the name "distance-based fares" an anomaly? Why call it distance-based when that is not really the case?

And I was almost flummoxed when Government Parliamentary Committee (Transport) chairman Lim Wee Kiak described the distance-based fare system as "equitable".

According to my Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary: "Something that is equitable is fair and reasonable in a way that gives equal treatment to everyone."

How can distance-based fares as it is structured now be "equitable", when 33 per cent of public transport users end up paying what seems to me to be "inequitably" more? (These, the PTC had earlier explained, are commuters who make hardly any or no transfers at all.)

And why do our fare systems - not only bus and MRT fares but also taxi fares - have to be so complex that you probably need a degree to understand them? Can't they be made simpler?

Perhaps our transport system, largely run by two listed companies - ComfortDelgro (which also includes listed SBS Transit and a couple of unlisted taxi companies) and SMRT - is serving too many sets of stakeholders currently, all with conflicting interests.

While its customers want the lowest fare possible, its other stakeholders, staff and shareholders will want the highest returns possible in terms of remuneration and dividends.

It may be time to relook things to serve the travelling public even better. Perhaps that could be done through a statutory board that is not motivated by profits - although that doesn't mean it has to suffer losses - in providing Singapore with a world-class transport system.



The writer is editor-at-large with Today.

 

[Glaringly]

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100816-0000014/In-a-muddle-over-fare-changes
The PTC has now disclosed that traveling time - and not just distance - is also used to charge train commuters under Singapore's distance-based fares system.

This is new to me, have not read about it before.

If time is use to tell the difference of making a new trip or for a transfer, I could understand it's implementation, but not as a "extra charge"?

This would be unfair, because there are many situation where it will cost us more, through no fault of us!

1. In situation where a service breaks down.
2. When the transferring services are late, because it is caught in a jam.
3. In off peak period when services runs less regular.
4. You would have known some interchange are configure in a way, that you have to walk some 200 ~ 300 metres to change services.

Also, the Ah pek and Ah mah will be charge more, simply they will take more time to walk.

 

[HTOLAS]

Some time ago, I suggested to a person of some import the following:

1. Charge by the distance as the crow flies between the start and end points, not the distance traveled on either bus or train;
2. I also suggested that the tap out readers be installed at the bus stops rather than on buses - this would have made it easy to arrive at the absolute distance as well relieve congestion at the alighting door.

That person mumbled something like there would be technical problems.

 

[sadfcuk]

This is new to me, have not read about it before.

If time is use to tell the difference of making a new trip or for a transfer, I could understand it's implementation, but not as a "extra charge"?

This would be unfair, because there are many situation where it will cost us more, through no fault of us!

1. In situation where a service breaks down.
2. When the transferring services are late, because it is caught in a jam.
3. In off peak period when services runs less regular.
4. You would have known some interchange are configure in a way, that you have to walk some 200 ~ 300 metres to change services.

Also, the Ah pek and Ah mah will be charge more, simply they will take more time to walk.

Well, the "time" factor is simply put as such:

1. Each transfer must be made within 45 minutes of disembarking from the train/bus (this means you should tap out only when you disembark. Don't tap out when you board the bus, even for feeder services!)
2. You are only allowed 5 trips which must be made within a total window of 2 hours.

Unofficially, remember that each journey can only contain 1 train trip.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

"The PTC has now disclosed that traveling time - and not just distance - is also used to charge train commuters under Singapore's distance-based fares system."

So that means people are discouraged from resting at those finely-structured station benches for too long. Time is money.

 

[Watchman]

It should just go up tp $6 per person to prevent over crowding .

I don't think most will mind .

 

[Loofydralb]

I guess these highly paid scholars who run our ministries still do not get it.

Singapore is just too small to make real competition between service providers effective in lowering costs and improving quality.

What we end up with are heavyweight Comfortdelgro and SMRT CEOs pushing around policymakers by pulling strings they've nurtured over the years.

The transport sector will end up just like the Starhub/Singtel saga where consumer left being the losers.

Wake up PAP. Were kicking you out.

 

[wahlaneh]

wahlaneh...
now many people choose to travel shorter distances eg toa payoh to bishan so ofcoz they are feeling the pinch now lor.
they want us to travel far far away the best is change many trains n buses mah.
but we have proven them wrong lor.

 

[Cestbon]

Wish that the PTC will increase all the fare by at least 20 cent or best 50 cents . Because sinkie are too stupid .