As of today, the public transport operators have lowered their fares by an average of 4.6% (link to PDF). How much savings will users get to benefit?
In a nutshell, all train fares (LRT inclusive) have been reduced by 2 cents. Fares for basic (i.e. trunk and feeder) bus services have also been reduced by 2 cents across the board, while transfer rebates have been increased from 40 to 50 cents.
A picture says a thousand words. What better way than to illustrate the cost savings with a case study?
Case Study: From NUS to Ang Mo Kio Ave 3
Before 1st April:
Before the fare reduction, the trip via the train and bus combination will cost $1.79. Here's how the breakdown of the fare looks like:
| NUS to Buona Vista MRT (bus): | $0.71 |
| Buona Vista to Ang Mo Kio MRT (train): | $1.48 |
| Rebate: | $0.40 |
| Total: | $1.79 |
From 1st April onwards:
With the new fares, the trip will only cost $1.65, 14 cents cheaper than before. The fare breakdown is as follows:
| NUS to Buona Vista MRT (bus): | $0.69 |
| Buona Vista to Ang Mo Kio MRT (train): | $1.46 |
| Rebate: | $0.50 |
| Total: | $1.65 |
Do stay tuned while we dish out more updates in the weeks to come!
Well, I still think the reduction is meagre, not worthy of an exclamation mark(!) unless it's for how minuscule it is. ... Especially so when oil/petrol costs are at its lowest in a decade. With further projections of decrease in demand, I think much more can be done if it were to qualify itself as "public" transport.