[h=1]LUI TUCK YEW: 90% OF BUSES WILL BE REWARDED WITH FREE MONEY FOR BEING ON TIME[/h]
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17 Dec 2014 - 3:55pm
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Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew gave an exclusive interview to the Channel NewsAsia and said that he would be giving more money to the bus operators for meeting new service standards.
:oIo:
Mr Lui said that the Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) has been in place for six months and so far, most of the bus services have met the standards
In fact, he said that of the 22 services, only two did not meet the cut.
However, 20 did and they will be rewarded.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will share more details in January of which buses met the standards and how much the government will be paying them.
The BSRF is a two-year trial which was introduced in February 2014. Services which meet are on time will be given between S$2,000 and S$6,000 for each 0.1 minute of excess wait time (EWT) or the difference between the actual and scheduled waiting time.
Operators which are late will only be fined fined between S$1,300 and S$4,000 for each 0.1 minute of EWT delay. They will be rewarded more than what they need to pay.
When the BSRF was first introduced, Singaporeans feared that the framework would just be another gimmick to allow the government to transfer more of taxpayers's money to the bus operators.
It looks like their worst fears have been realised - the government has decided that 20 out of the 22 bus services will be given free money.
But "What we have to pay out is well within the budget we have set aside for it," Mr Lui insisted.
But that is besides the point. The bus operators will still be "rewarded" with money that Singaporean taxpayers paid.
Moreover, how are the standards even measured?
But Mr Lui claimed, "The conclusion so far for the 22 services, over about a half year, is that with some concerted effort from the operators, we can see improvements, and the improvements can be felt by the commuters. Two, is that the standards we have set are pretty realistic, meaning that it is not such an easy thing to get the incentives for all the services."
This does not even say anything.
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And how were the standards even set?
So, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport Cedric Foo said, “If you set it at a very high rate, then the cost of operating the network will be higher. So, regulators and commuters at large must come to an agreement that this is a reasonable level of service without causing too much inflation of cost."
But this still does not answer the question.
Did the government come out with a study or even explain using statistical tools how the EWT was decided?
Mr Foo said that there should not be "too much inflation of cost" to bus operators but why is it that the fines for bus operators which do not meet the standards are much lower than their rewards?
Moreover, now that 20 bus services will be rewarded and only 2 penalised, this means that the bus operators stand to earn as much as $120,000 but lose only as little as $2,600.
So, the question remains - how exactly was the BSRF and its components decided? Was a preliminary study done?
Also, if the trial becomes a fixture and the bus operators continue to be rewarded at the rate they are, does this mean that taxpayers would have to pay millions to "reward" the bus operators for doing a job that they were supposed to do in the first place?
When Singaporeans asked if the framework will become a revenue-generating tool for the bus operators, giving on a platter by the government, it does indeed look to be the case.
Moreover, where bus drivers are now being forced to drive quickly so as to meet the criteria set by the framework, commuters in Singapore will now understand why some of the buses have been driven more rudely and why some buses have chosen not to stop at some bus stops.
Instead of "rewarding" and penalising bus drivers and putting unnecessary pressure on them, it would be more logical to provide more buses so as to meet the demand.
This framework has only exposed the flaws in the government's policy-making and how bus operators are once again going to benefit at the expense of commuters in Singapore yet again.
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17 Dec 2014 - 3:55pm
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Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew gave an exclusive interview to the Channel NewsAsia and said that he would be giving more money to the bus operators for meeting new service standards.
:oIo:
Mr Lui said that the Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) has been in place for six months and so far, most of the bus services have met the standards
In fact, he said that of the 22 services, only two did not meet the cut.
However, 20 did and they will be rewarded.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will share more details in January of which buses met the standards and how much the government will be paying them.
The BSRF is a two-year trial which was introduced in February 2014. Services which meet are on time will be given between S$2,000 and S$6,000 for each 0.1 minute of excess wait time (EWT) or the difference between the actual and scheduled waiting time.
Operators which are late will only be fined fined between S$1,300 and S$4,000 for each 0.1 minute of EWT delay. They will be rewarded more than what they need to pay.
When the BSRF was first introduced, Singaporeans feared that the framework would just be another gimmick to allow the government to transfer more of taxpayers's money to the bus operators.
It looks like their worst fears have been realised - the government has decided that 20 out of the 22 bus services will be given free money.
But "What we have to pay out is well within the budget we have set aside for it," Mr Lui insisted.
But that is besides the point. The bus operators will still be "rewarded" with money that Singaporean taxpayers paid.
Moreover, how are the standards even measured?
But Mr Lui claimed, "The conclusion so far for the 22 services, over about a half year, is that with some concerted effort from the operators, we can see improvements, and the improvements can be felt by the commuters. Two, is that the standards we have set are pretty realistic, meaning that it is not such an easy thing to get the incentives for all the services."
This does not even say anything.
<ins id="aswift_1_expand" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 336px; height: 280px; display: inline-table; visibility: visible; position: relative; background-color: transparent; border-image: none;"><ins id="aswift_1_anchor" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: currentColor; width: 336px; height: 280px; display: block; visibility: visible; position: relative; background-color: transparent; border-image: none;"><iframe name="aswift_1" width="336" height="280" id="aswift_1" frameBorder="0" marginWidth="0" marginHeight="0" scrolling="no" vspace="0" hspace="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="left: 0px; top: 0px; position: absolute;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe></ins></ins>
And how were the standards even set?
So, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport Cedric Foo said, “If you set it at a very high rate, then the cost of operating the network will be higher. So, regulators and commuters at large must come to an agreement that this is a reasonable level of service without causing too much inflation of cost."
But this still does not answer the question.
Did the government come out with a study or even explain using statistical tools how the EWT was decided?
Mr Foo said that there should not be "too much inflation of cost" to bus operators but why is it that the fines for bus operators which do not meet the standards are much lower than their rewards?
Moreover, now that 20 bus services will be rewarded and only 2 penalised, this means that the bus operators stand to earn as much as $120,000 but lose only as little as $2,600.
So, the question remains - how exactly was the BSRF and its components decided? Was a preliminary study done?
Also, if the trial becomes a fixture and the bus operators continue to be rewarded at the rate they are, does this mean that taxpayers would have to pay millions to "reward" the bus operators for doing a job that they were supposed to do in the first place?
When Singaporeans asked if the framework will become a revenue-generating tool for the bus operators, giving on a platter by the government, it does indeed look to be the case.
Moreover, where bus drivers are now being forced to drive quickly so as to meet the criteria set by the framework, commuters in Singapore will now understand why some of the buses have been driven more rudely and why some buses have chosen not to stop at some bus stops.
Instead of "rewarding" and penalising bus drivers and putting unnecessary pressure on them, it would be more logical to provide more buses so as to meet the demand.
This framework has only exposed the flaws in the government's policy-making and how bus operators are once again going to benefit at the expense of commuters in Singapore yet again.
