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Transport Minister Lui: Protect certain groups like senior citizens from fare hikes

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Annual public transport fare review exercise starts

Vulnerable groups, such as senior citizens, should be "insulated" from a possible fare increase, said Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew in a Facebook post as the Public Transport Council (PTC) announced earlier yesterday the start of its annual fare review exercise.

"I hope that the PTC will study if we can insulate vulnerable groups such as senior citizens from a fare increase, or at least mitigate the impact on them," Mr Lui wrote.

"In the same regard, the Ministry of Transport will also study how we can similarly enhance the concession schemes (the) Government introduced for lower wage workers and persons with disabilities earlier this year."

Received much feedback

The minister added that "this builds on the improvements of the 2013 fare review exercise".

"I had received much positive feedback from Singaporeans who benefitted from the new and enhanced travel concession schemes," he said.

"These include lower wage workers and persons with disabilities who enjoy lower fares, children below seven who now travel free and students, especially (those) from the polytechnics, through lower prices of monthly concession passes."

He added that he hoped the PTC would consider not raising the prices of travel passes.

Public transport operators may submit their applications for fare review to the council for consideration by Dec 19. The results will be announced in the first quarter of next year.