6 Ways To Cushion The Impact Of a Fare Hike

Public Transport Fare Hike

With effect from 5 April 2015, public transport fare in Singapore will increase by 2.8 per cent. This is due to a roll over balance of 3.4 per cent in the 2014’s fare hike and after discounting the effect of lower oil prices, there would still be a net increase of 2 to 5 cents for most commuters. About 1.1 million commuters will not be affected as the PTC has decided to keep the fare of senior citizens, lower-wage workers and persons with disabilities, as well as the price of concessionary pass unchanged.

How will a 2 to 5 cents increase per journey affects an average commuter? Credits to the Ministry of Transport, they have done up a table to illustrate the impact on monthly transport expenditure of an average family.

MOT Fare Hike

(Image credit: Ministry of Transport)

As illustrated above, a working adult would expect their monthly transport expenditure to increase between $2 to $3 a month. That would probably cost you a cup of Starbucks’ latte a month or a decent meal for two in a restaurant if you add up the expenses for a year.

Although it may not be sizeable, a dollar saved is still a dollar earned. Here are 5 ways to cushion the impact of a fare hike:

*Updated 14 Apr 2015 to include a chance to win a $10 EZ-Link top up with the LINE app

1. Claim $10 travel credits with TransitLink Service Audit

TransitLink Service Audit

You may or may not know of that you can claim a $10 travel credit from TransitLink every month by just participating in a short survey. This survey is aimed at improving the service level of TransitLink’s staff and your feedback is important for them to evaluate their level of customer service.

What you need to do:

  • Log on to the Facebook’s page of TransitLink: https://www.facebook.com/TransitLinkSG
  • Check out their latest updates on the list of designated offices and note the destination for which you will travel to in the next few weeks
  • Make a transaction in the designated Ticket Office or Concession Replacement Office during the service audit period
  • Submit your feedback of the selected office at http://transitlink.questionpro.com
  • Once verified, you will receive a SMS notification informing you of the $5 credit that you can redeem from any Add Value Machine Plus (AVM+)

How much can you save or earn a month?

You can do a maximum of one survey for two different Customer Service Officers per month. Each survey will earn you a $5 credit so you can get $10 credit in total a month.

Read Also: TransitLink: Earn $5 Travel Credit Monthly

2. Earn travel credits with Travel Smart Rewards

With increasing population comes increased public transport ridership and there is that much that you can achieve by increasing train frequency. The Land Transport Authority is conducting a research to find out if incentivising commuters through gamification can help change the behaviour of commuters. Previously known as Insinc, Travel Smart Rewards is a scheme that rewards commuters for their travel on public transport.

Each commuter can earn points when they take the MRT on Monday to Friday with a CEPAS registered card at a rate of 1 points for every 1 kilometre travelled. To encourage commuters to take train during off peak hours, there will be more points for taking designated decongesting hours from 6.15 am to 7.15am and 8.45am to 9:45am. You can also qualify for different badges such as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum with every travel during the decongesting hours.

Points Table

Every 10 points allow you to spin and play a “Snake and Ladder” game to win travel credits. There are different amount to be won and the highest being a $200 travel credit which you can use to top up your fare card. You can let the system auto-play the game for you and you would be surprised to see that you can actually win money (in the form of travel credits) after some time. Just go to another Add Value Machine (AVM) and select “TSR Rewards” to load the credits into your card.
Travel Smart Rewards

What you need to do:

  • Register your Ez-Link/NETS FlashPay/Concession card at https://www.travelsmartrewards.sg
  • Verify your email address and it will take another 8 days for them to verify the card after you take at least 2 train trips
  • Start accumulating points with your train trips (Try to travel during the decongesting period to earn more points)
  • Spin the wheel or set it on auto-pilot
  • Check how much you win after some time
  • Load these credits you won onto your travel card at any AVM.

How much can you save or earn a month?

It depends. If Lady Luck is shining on you, you can earn a few hundred travel credits in the game. Otherwise, you should also be glad with a few extra dollars added to your account.

3.Travel free during pre-peak hours

MRT Free Travel

In an effort to reduce congestion and packed trains in the morning peak hours, the LTA has extended the one year free pre-peak travel until 23 June 2015. That is to say early birds who make the effort to shift their daily travel routine and tap out of the 18 designated MRT stations will travel for free. Don’t fret if overslept by 5 to 10 minutes because you will still get a 50 cents off if you exit the stations between 7.45am to 8am. Like the saying goes: the early bird catches the worm.

What you need to do:

  • Reschedule your routine earlier
  • Have your breakfast near your workplace

How much can you save or earn?

The cost of an entire trip or 50 cents a day.

4. Make use of rebates

Rebate is one of the most straightforward way to offset your travel expenses. Whether you are using NETS FlashPay or EZ-Link to take the trains or buses, there are different rebate schemes out there for the savvy commuters to make full use of.

For the NETS FlashPay, you can earn a 6 per cent rebates for using Auto Top-Ups if you meet a minimum spend of $500 a month.

If you are using the EZ-Link card, you can earn up to 7% cash rebate with the Imagine American Express Prepaid Card. This card acts as a two-in-one and you can use it either for shopping with merchants that accepts AMEX card or using it simply as a Ez-Link card to commute. You will earn a 2% rebates by taking the buses or trains with the Ez-Link purse and 5% rebates on all other spends with the AMEX purse. (Tip: You can set up EZ-Reload where your Ez-Link purse will be topped up by the AMEX purse) You can also earn further rebates and rewards by topping up your Imagine Card with another credit card of your choice. For example, you can use the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Card or the DBS Woman’s Card for 10X points.

Imagine Card AMEX

 

What you need to do:

  • Decide if you want to use Ez-Link or NETS FlashPay as your primary card for public transport
  • NET FlashPay: go sign up for a OCBC Frank Card and register for auto top-ups on Nets FlashPay’s website here: http://bit.ly/1y8LSJe
  • Ez-Link: Sign up for a AMEX Imagine Card, then activate, register and reload it on the Imaginecard’s website here: http://www.imaginecard.com.sg

How much can you save or earn?

6% rebates for NETS FlashPay or 7% rebates + X* for Ez-Link (where X* is arbitrary – can be miles, rebates or points)

5. Use Off Peak Monthly Concession Pass 

Off Peak Monthly Travel Pass OMTP

To further reduce bottlenecks during peak hours, the government will roll out a new Off-Peak Monthly Travel Pass (OMTP) on 5 July 2015 which will allow unlimited travel outside the weekday morning peak period (6.30am – 9am), evening peak period (5 – 7.30pm) and all days on weekends and public holidays. Instead of costing $120 for the current Adult Monthly Travel Pass, the OMTP will cost just $80 for adults and $40 for senior citizens and person with disabilities.

If you work out the maths, there are about 22 weekdays in a month so assuming a one way trip cost $1.80, if would have cost you close to $80 a month. (which is about the cost of an OMTP) The difference is you can now make additional trip on weekdays (say, a lunch break that is a few stations away) and weekends without paying the extra dollar.

What you need to do:

Work out your monthly travel expenses and see if it exceeds the cost of an OMTP of $80.

If it does, check if you can reschedule your daily routine

Make sure you tap IN outside the peak period timing (before 6.30am or after 9am for morning) and (before 5pm or after 7.30pm for evening)

How much can you save or earn?

If you travel twice a day with an average trip cost of $2, it would have cost you $120. Purchasing the card will allow you to save $40.

Now that you have learnt how to reduce your travel expenses, start to implement these tips so that you can better manage your travel expenses. You might even reduce your overall expenses on transport!

6. Get a free EZ-Link $10 top up with LINE (Updated 14 Apr 2015)

EZ-Link has just collaborated with LINE in a recent news release on 13 Apr 2015, commuters can now stand a chance to win a $10 free top-up and other attractive prizes when they use LINE.

EZ-Link LINE

What you need to do:

  • Download the LINE App from your Google Play or your Apple’s app store
  • Add “EZ-Link” as your friend
  • Send a message “EZ-Link EZ-Reload” daily from now till 31st May 2015.
  • Stand a chance to win EZ-Link $10 top-up values, LINE merchandises, electronic gadgets, jewelries and many more

EZ-Link X LINE

How much can you save or earn?

If you are lucky, you can win a $10 top up to your EZ-Link or other attractive prizes such as a ASUS phone, Swarovski jewellery, Krispy Kreme treats, Mi Powerbank, etc

Do not be disappointed if you do not win as you can attempt this daily until 31st May 2015 and i’m sure you could win something!

 

 

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2.8 per cent hike in public transportation cost, a fare deal?

Earlier this month, Singaporeans were taken aback when we were told by the Public Transport Council (PTC) that there will be a fare hike of 2.8 per cent in April 2015. It was no surprise that it was met with public outcry when the fare adjustment did not tally with the price of crude oil which has plummeted from $110 a barrel to $45 a barrel. Gas price has in fact fallen for a record of 17 consecutive weeks as at the time of writing.

The reason that there was a increase in fare prices despite falling oil prices was because of a remaining 3.4 per cent that was rolled over from last year fare’s adjustment. Last year, fare should increase by 6.6 per cent but because implementing the full fare hike may significantly increases the expenses of an average household, the fare only went up 3.2 per cent. This year fare adjustment has in fact went down by 0.6 per cent due to lower energy cost which explained why overall there was still a 2.8 per cent increase.

The question that we may be asking is whether the increase is justifiable after taking into account various factors such as wage level, inflation rate and energy cost – the metrics used in the fare formula.

We shall look at some of the reasons that Singaporeans has voiced out.

Service level has not seen significant improvements
While it is understandable that trains, tracks and buses have their usual wear and tear, service level has not seen significant improvements since 2011 where SMRT had received two fines of $1 million for the massive disruptions in the month of December. SMRT was fined $200,000 for a 40-minute disruption in January and $100,000 for a 50-minute disruption in May last year. In 2013, SMRT was also fined $400,000 for safety breaches in October.

The most recent delay happened two days ago:

LTA and the PTOs have to restore public confidence before even talking about a fare increase – MP Liang Eng Hwa speaking in Parliament in 2013

The benefits of privatisation has not been materialised
It was believed that privatization would lead to improve efficiency and thus reduce costs. With a profit motive, transport operators will aim to innovate and be efficient in their operations. This will in turn lead to cost reduction and savings can then be passed on to the commuters.

Unfortunately this has not been the case in Singapore when the duopolistic nature of our transport system has not made our two PTOs competitive. With no overlapping of routes and a industry with a high barrier of entry, PTOs see no need to compete with each others for profits and market share. Moreover, Singaporeans also depends heavily on MRT and buses for commuting and one would fail to see how this will lead to innovation from our PTOs.

For bus services, it is clear that being privately managed does not equate to a more efficient outcome as government intervention is needed to expand the number of buses and thus improving connectivity and better service level. This is evident when the government has implemented a $1.1 billion Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) in 2012.

What about other countries? Take the British Rail for example. Railway companies in Britain had been self sufficient prior to privatisation by the government of John Major. Now Britain’s Railways are one of the most expensive in the World despite receiving four times more in taxpayers’ subsidies than a state-owned British Rail.

In fact, 60 per cent of the British have voted in favour of a public railway as they feel that it should be accountable to taxpayers than the the shareholders.

Nationalisation of British Rail

(Source: yougov.co.uk)

Comparison to Hong Kong’s MTR and Taiwan’s Metro
Hong Kong’s MTR boasts a 99.9% on-time rate for many years and is even looking at running operations in other parts of the World in Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia.
For the NSWEL performance against LTA’s Operating Performance Standards, train arrival punctuality has went south for a consecutive of 5 years.
SMRT Punctuality

Hong Kong’s MTR has also moves close to 5 million passengers a day compared to 2.5 million in Singapore, but surprisingly the frequencies and punctuality of the Hong Kong’s MTRs has managed the crowd during peak hour so well that you hardly see the crowded and congested platforms in Singapore.


If you think that commuters in Hong Kong and Taiwan are paying more for better services, you would be surprised that they actually match up or even pay lesser than what commuters in Singapore are paying.

Fares in Singapore

(Source, Public Transport Council)

Have i missed out that you can also get free WIFI at every stations in Hong Kong’s MTR, Taiwan’s Metro and even the Seoul’s Subway? Though Singapore has only recently started to offer free WIFI in selected stations, one may only wonder why we are lagging behind the rest of the Asian Tigers.

Public transport as a merit good
Public transport is considered as a merit goods and in Singapore where land is scarce, the role of MRT and buses help to reduce private vehicles ownership and thus reduce road congestion. By increasing fares when prices of fuel and COE are decreasing, are Singaporeans getting the wrong signal that one should consider owning a private vehicle? For the extra comfort and convenience, it would be no surprise to see more people choosing car as their mode of transport.

Moreover, another benefit of public transport is that it reduces pollution as less vehicle on the roads would also means less air pollutants emitted to the atmosphere. This generally leads to a better quality of living with healthier individuals.

Less taxpayer’s money is also spent on infrastructure costs such as building more expressways, expanding roads and increasing parking lots which could have been better used to improve and subsidise healthcare costs.

Public transport operators to earn supernormal profits
Should public transport operators earn supernormal profits at the expense of its citizens and taxpayers? Everyone has contributed to the construction of roads, railway tracks and depot stations (whether you use it or not) in the form of tax. In fact, public transport operators in Singapore is one of the few that is profitable in the World with a farebox recovery ratio of 125% in 2008.

The truth is taxpayers and majority of the people have no interest in SMRT or SBST. Whether the PTOs are making a dollar today or a million dollar tomorrow, unless you are its employee or shareholder, it hardly matters. What commuters are concerned about is how fares adjustment will affect them and their standard of living.

Critics may argue that profits are dwindling for the past few years due to increasing operating costs. The decline in profits is evident in the chart below.

SMRT Profit After Tax

(Source: SMRT Financial Statements, in $millions)

As one may have expected after the spate of disruptions in 2011, we expect the transport operator to step up on improving its ageing trains and tracks.

SMRT Repair & Maintenance Cost

(Source: SMRT Financial Statements, in $millions)

Staff and related costs also increased because of the need to hire more staff to handle the increased ridership in MRT and buses.

SMRT Staff Cost

(Source: SMRT Financial Statements, in $millions)

What is important here is not finding out why the profits of transport operator declined but rather asking ourselves what is the appropriate level of profits that public transport operator should make?

From the charts above, one can see that profits has climbed sharply from 2002 to 2009 while the costs has been relatively flat for the same time period. What does this tell you? One would expect the profits to soar to a high of $162.9 million in FY2010. Were the amount allocated to repairs and maintenance sufficient to keep our trains moving with minimal disruptions? The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) don’t think so.

What about staff and related costs? It’s realistic to say that Singapore’s population has been increasing every year and this would thus lead to increased ridership. It is surprising to see that staff and related costs have been rather stagnant before FY2009. It is no wonder that during these period, Singaporeans were complaining about congested trains and buses and the long wait for buses on certain routes and the need for the government to implement BSEP.

The achievement would have been commendable if some of these gains were passed on to the commuters as cost savings and not as dividends to shareholders. Ideally, in a nationalised transport system, these profits would have been reinvested to improve the standard, increase reliability and keep fares affordable.

Now ask yourself if the benefits of a better, cheaper and more reliable public transport has been realised? Has the increased profitabilty of privately owned transports translated to better services?

The principle for setting fares was clear. Fares will be kept as low as possible, consisted with collecting enough revenue to meet the running costs of the MRT, replace parts and equipment regularly and provide company shareholders a reasonable return. – Transport Minister Yeo Ning Hong, 9 July 1986

Singapore MRT 1986

What’s your view on the fare increase? Is the fare adjustment, a fair one? Share your thoughts with us.

 

 

 

 

 

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