September 04, 2018, 09:49 AM 
The Public Transport Council (PTC) announced the commencement of the annual public transport fare review exercise for 2018.
This year's fare review will be different because if you recall, the PTC will be using a new formula to calculate the allowable fare adjustment.
If you need a refresher, here's the formula announced in March 2018:
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Breaking down (LOL) the fare adjustment
Now, if you really want to geek out over the individual components, read on:
Price Index: Core Consumer Price Index rose by 1.5 per cent.
Wage Index: Wage Index is used as a proxy for the wages of public transport workers such as bus captains. This rose by 3 per cent.
Energy Index: Energy prices rebounded by 26.2 per cent from the previous year.
Productivity Extraction: Based on half the productivity gain of public transport operators, this results in a downward adjustment of 0.1 per cent.
Network Capacity Factor (NCF): This is the newest component in the new fare adjustment formula. According to the PTC, this is a factor of 3 per cent indicating more supply than demand:
"Over the past five years, more than 1000 new buses were introduced through the Bus Service Enhancement Programme and Bus Contracting Model, and more than 200 new trains were injected to augment the public transport capacity."
The PTC added that the increase in bus capacity contributed more than two-thirds to the NCF. The Straits Times noted that public transport ridership fell by 1.8 per cent, exacerbating the difference in demand and supply.
Fare should not increase "by more than 10 cents"
Originally, the new formula provides for an upward fare adjustment of 7.5 per cent. However, the PTC carried over an unused 3.2 per cent fare cut from last year's adjustment, bringing the allowable fare increase down to just 4.3 per cent.
A member of the PTC, Vincent Chua, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, told The Straits Times that the adjustment "should not result in fares increasing by more than 10 cents per journey".
The article also went on to suggest that commuters can take advantage of the new transfer subsidies (like saving 39 cents by walking about 400 metres from Rochor Station to Jalan Besar Station).
Public transport operators cannot submit a fare increase of more than 4.3 per cent. They have until October 1, 2018 to submit their fare applications. The PTC will announce the final quantum for adjustment in the final quarter of 2018.
Mostly negative reactions online
People online were, naturally, not pleased.
The majority lamented the seemingly "continuous" fare increases, despite the PTC saying in its announcement that we actually have been seeing fare reductions of 8.3 per cent in the last three consecutive years.
Comments that supported the fare increase were few and far between:
But this one below definitely got us thinking:
Win liao lor.
The PTC's announcement can be found here.
[Edit: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that the PTC will be announcing the quantum for fare adjustment in the third quarter of 2018. The quantum will be announced in the final quarter.]
Top image by Joshua Lee and Facebook.
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