N
Nobunaga Oda
Guest
I wonder who are they?
Users don't mind fare rise if service quality goes up
By Hoe Yeen Nie | Posted: 05 August 2011 2121 hrs
SINGAPORE: Some public transport commuters say they do not mind fare increases so long as the quality of service goes up.
But in addition to pricing tweaks, observers say that in the long term, authorities can manage travel demand better by influencing commuter behaviour while increasing capacity on buses and trains.
Public transport fares will increase from 8 October. Overall, 85 per cent of commuters will see an average increase of 15 cents in fares per week, said the Public Transport Council (PTC).
The rise in fares comes at a time when Singapore is facing high inflation and amid fears the world could be heading towards another recession following the 2008 financial crisis.
Some commuters will no doubt feel the pinch more than others, but they will get a little help. Authorities and the public transport operators have set aside S$4 million in vouchers to help low-income households.
Still, other commuters said they can shoulder the increase. One commuter said: "Per journey, increase 2 cents. I don't think there's much of a difference."
But another commuter said that the increase has to be justified "with the service quality of public transport itself".
One analyst said that in addition to raising fares and building more capacity, authorities can manage travel demand by influencing behaviour.
Associate Professor Anthony Chin from the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore welcomed the latest efforts by SMRT to incentivise rail commuters to get to work before the morning peak hour.
He said: "We ought to try it out. But the question now is that, are employers willing to play ball? How would they see a person (employee) arriving earlier, and how would you reward him? We're all human beings and we all work on the basis of incentives. I'm not expecting, like, 5 percent of the people to suddenly switch their time of departure. If we can get, say, half of one percent, that's great."
Mr Cedric Foo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee on Transport, said: "It is very challenging for any network company to produce capacity to meet the peak loads and yet seeing (during) the off-peak hours, the utilisation is less than full. So if you can spread out the traffic loads to off-peak periods, you actually can improve the service standards to some extent."
Mr Foo said SBS Transit should also adopt a similar incentive scheme, but he added in the long-term, public transport capacity must continue to grow.
- CNA/ir
