Commuters won't have to worry about any changes to public transport fares this year.

The Public Transport Council (PTC) announced that it won't be granting any fare adjustment during this year's Fare Review Exercise (FRE) to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 during the current economic downturn.

No change to bus & train fares until the next FRE

The PTC has decided to monitor the impact of Covid-19 crisis on Singaporeans and to safeguard commuters' interests by rolling over any fare adjustments at this year's FRE to the FRE in 2021.

Based on the fare review formula applicable from 2018 to 2022, the maximum allowable fare adjustment quantum for FRE 2020 is 4.4%.

The council will continue to monitor the economic conditions closely, even during next year's FRE.

Sharp drop in fare revenue for operators

Circuit breaker measures and weak external demand during the Covid-19 crisis led to Singapore's economy shrinking by 41.2 per cent in the second quarter compared with the first, according to estimates by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in July this year.

Public transport operators felt the pinch during circuit breaker with a drastic fall in whole-day ridership by around 75 per cent during the circuit breaker from April to June 2020, said PTC.

At the same time, public transport operator continued to run trains and buses largely at pre-Covid frequencies.

In addition, another cost that went up during the crisis is the rise in cleaning costs, as operators stepped up cleaning regimes.

Despite the above-mentioned factors leading to a sharp drop in fare revenue for public transport operators, the PTC decided not to grant any fare adjustments this year.

With the sharp and sustained drop in ridership due to Covid-19, there will be a mid-term review of the Network Capacity Factor (NCF) component in the fare adjustment formula.

The component was introduced in 2018, and is not designed for such exceptional circumstances.

PTC will review if NCF ought to be applied, or whether it should be partially or totally excluded by next year's FRE, when considering its effect on next year’s fare adjustment.

Government subsidies for the sector expected to be higher in 2020

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the government was expected to spend around S$2 billion on renewing and upgrading rail operating assets, as well as to subsidise public bus services over the next five years.

According to PTC, this translates to more than $1 in subsidies for every journey taken.

However, with the current  economic downturn, revenues have fallen further and PTC expects government subsidies to be even higher this year.

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