Effect of Price Increase in Transport ($5.30 more per month?)

Public transport is very important in most Singaporean's life, we rely a lot on the public transport because cars and motorcycles are expensive in Singapore. So it was recently reported that there could be a 4.3% increase in our fares. So recently, water and gas prices have also increased and I think generally everything has increased in price.




My family was having a discussion recently and I of course, feel that the price increase is not so good given the recent earlier ending times and upgrading going on. On the other hand, my brother mentioned that Singapore's transport fares are actually one of the most affordable within all the developed countries so he finds that the increase is reasonable.

He also mentioned that there are reasons why the fare would be increased and they did explain. In the article from ChannelNewsAsia, "Last year's energy prices, which will be factored in this year's fare formula, rebounded by 26.2 per cent over the previous year. The wage index, which is a proxy for the wage growth of public transport workers including bus captains and rail staff, went up by 3 per cent. The core consumer price index also rose by 1.5 per cent - the highest increase in three years. The fare increase is also to supplement the new buses and trains added to our transport system. "




So the increase in fares will be used for various purposes and we can hopefully look forward to new and improved transport services being rolled out. So let's take for example if there is an increase of 4.3%, just how much would the increase be?

• So I take public transport almost everyday and I take it over a long distance because my school is pretty far from my home. I spend on average about $4 each day. So, let's take $4 x 31days = $124 for one month.

• Next, 4.3/100 x $124 = $5.332, this could mean that my monthly transport expenses could increase by at least $5.30 if the fare adjustment is 4.3%. 

We will have to see how much it will increase and it will be announced in the last quarter of 2018. Some thing interesting I found online was that one of the cheapest metro is Pyongyang Metro which charges 5 KP₩, which is just about US$0.01 per ride. Interesting!

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