If approved by the Public Transport Council (PTC), bus and train fares will rise by up to 1.8 per cent - or around three cents - from October.
The most recent fare jump was in October last year - then, they went up by between one and three cents per trip on buses and trains.
Back then, the operators blamed high costs - in particular the high price of fuel and manpower - for the need to raise their fares.
the companies are citing the same reasons - manpower and energy - for their fare increases. SBS Transit, part of the ComfortDelGro group, for instance, called its cost increases 'significant'.
'Energy costs, for example, rose by 20 per cent or $20.3 million last year - having already increased by 41.2 per cent in 2005
Manpower costs, the company's largest cost component, also increased by about $12.1 million during the year.' increase in the goods and services tax as well as the 1.5 percentage point rise in employers' CPF contributions will pull down its earnings by about $11 million a year. |
