Cheaper bus and MRT fares from Dec 30

Bus and train commuters will enjoy an overall fare reduction of 4.2 per cent from Dec 30, the Public Transport Council (PTC) announced yesterday.

For adults using travel cards, this will translate to savings of between 1 and 27 cents for a journey.

Senior citizens will have their fares lowered by 1 to 7 cents, and students by 1 cent across the board.

As part of the 4.2 per cent reduction, the fare structure will be simplified, the PTC said.

Fares for fully-underground rail lines, such as the North-East Line, Circle Line and Downtown Line, will be lowered to be the same as those of above-ground lines, such as the North-South and East-West Lines.

Trips on the fully-underground lines now cost 5 to 25 cents more for adult commuters.

"This will benefit commuters further as more new fully-underground lines are opened in coming years," said PTC chairman Richard Magnus.

Graphics adapted from Public Transport Council

From Dec 30, train fares will also be calculated based on the shortest path between the commuter's origin and destination.

They are now calculated based on the fastest travel path, which may not always be the shortest in term of distance.

FLEXIBILITY

"Commuters will enjoy more flexibility in choosing the most convenient travel path, without worrying that they have to pay more because the journey is routed through a fully-underground line," the PTC said.

This will result in commuters always paying the lowest fares possible, the council said.

The PTC is guided by a fare adjustment formula for its annual fare review. The 4.2 per cent reduction in fares will mean a cut in revenue of $8.9 million for SBS Transit and $34.6 million for SMRT.

- The Straits Times

• With the exception of Taipei, all fares are normalised based on the country's purchasing power parity (PPP).
• PPP adjustments take into account the exchange rate and the cost of living.
• In the absence of an official PPP conversion factor, fares for Taipei are converted into SGD using prevailing exchange rates. These fares could differ after adjustment for the cost of living.
• When comparing distance-based rail fares in Singapore with different fare charging systems (e.g. zonal fares in London or time-differentiated fares in Sydney), the lowest fare applicable across all zones and time periods in the system was used for comparison.
• The above comparisons are valid as at Oct 10, 2016.