Singapore train fares among lowest in major cities worldwide
Train fares here are among the lowest when compared with other major cities around the world, a survey revealed.
For a 10km rail journey, commuters pay $1.33 - the sixth cheapest in a comparison of 36 cities across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.
Only Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China, and Taipei have lower fares than Singapore for a train trip of the same distance.
The study, conducted by SIM University, was released by the Public Transport Council (PTC) on its blog yesterday.
PTC chairman Richard Magnus said in the blog post: "We will continue to conduct such comparison studies to ensure that we are kept abreast of international fare trends and uphold PTC's commitment to keep fares affordable for our commuters, while ensuring the sustainability of our public transport system."
Besides comparing fares for a 10km train trip, the study also looked at the lowest rail fare in the 36 cities.
Singapore's lowest train fare of $0.77 places it fourth among the 36 cities. Only Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Taipei have a lower minimum fare.
Mr Magnus said: "Within Asia, the rail fares in Singapore are amongst the lowest, while rail fares in cities like Tokyo and Seoul lie on the higher end of the spectrum in Asia.
"When compared with cities in Australia, Europe and North America, rail fares in Singapore are considerably lower."
With the exception of Taipei, fare levels for the cities were converted to Singapore dollars based on each city's purchasing power parity (PPP). This accounted for any differences in the strength of currency and cost of living across the region.
Without an official PPP conversion factor, fares in Taipei were converted to Singapore dollars using only the prevailing exchange rate.
The PTC's blog post comes ahead of an overall fare cut of 4.2 per cent for bus and train trips, which will kick in on Dec 30. On that day, fares will be levelled down so commuters pay the same amount for the same distance, regardless of whether they take a train line that is underground or above-ground.
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