SINGAPORE — Up to one million commuters may benefit from a new framework governing public transport concessionary fares proposed by a high-level panel set up to review public transport fares.
Making public its recommendations today (Nov 5), the Fare Review Mechanism Committee (FRMC) has proposed two new concessionary schemes — one for low income workers and another for persons with disabilities. These should be fully funded by the Government, the Committee said.
Enhancements to six existing concessionary schemes were also proposed. These include providing free travel for children who are below the age of seven, instead of the current height criteria of 0.9m; offering monthly concession passes for senior citizens and monthly travel passes for adult commuters who are heavy users of public transport.
The Committee has recommended sub-dividing the tertiary concession scheme – one for polytechnic students, and the other for university students – aimed at bringing existing discounts for polytechnic students closer to that of the secondary student concession group.
The 14-member panel, headed by former senior district judge Richard Magnus, has also proposed a new fare formula, which will feature a new component factoring in energy costs. The consumer price index used will exclude some items, such as private transport and housing. If accepted, the new fare formula will apply between this year and 2017.
The committee also felt that the Public Transport Council should be given the discretion to roll over a portion of the quantum of fare increases in any year to the next fare review exercise. The PTC should also be given the discretion to defer completely the fare review exercise if a recession or high unemployment hits. Such a flexible mechanism is to safeguard commuters’ interest by smoothening out large fare increases yielded by the fare formula, while allowing transport operators to be fairly compensated for their cost increases over the long-term.
Thanking the panel for its report, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said he was in favour of the Government funding proposed new concession schemes for disadvantaged groups while any enhancements to existing schemes be cross-subsidised by commuters. Noting that the last fare hike was in 2011, he said the committee’s proposal to allow for smoothening of significant fare hikes over two years using a roll-over mechanism would be helpful. “This will avoid excessive fare hikes in any one year. My own view is that any fare increase should be below the average national-level wage increase for that year,” Mr Lui said in his Facebook page.
The committee also felt that the public transport operators should contribute more of their profits to the Public Transport Fund when there is a fare adjustment. Their contributions could range from a minimum of 20 per cent to a maximum of 50 per cent of the expected increase in fare revenue from the fare adjustment granted.
The Transport Ministry will respond to the report next week.
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment