Chee: Public transport trade-offs need careful management

Goal is to provide greater convenience to the public while keeping costs affordable

- Esther Loi

Even as the Government injects resources into buying more buses and hiring more bus drivers, it needs to carefully manage tradeoffs between providing greater convenience for the public and keeping overall costs affordable as resources are finite, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said.

Speaking at the Economic Society of Singapore's annual dinner at Orchard Hotel on Aug 28, Mr Chee said that is why the Government needs to continue rationalising bus services as Singapore's MRT network continues to expand.

This is especially so for long trunk bus services that run parallel to MRT lines, as these see a significant drop in ridership when commuters switch to riding the MRT, he added.

"If we continue with all these bus services, which is certainly the most popular thing to do instead of bus rationalisation, it will translate to higher costs for the entire system and, in turn, higher fares for commuters and a larger burden on taxpayers," said Mr Chee, who is also Second Finance Minister.

Calling public transport "a merit good", where the costs of capital and operating expenditure are not fully recovered, Mr Chee said commuters now enjoy a subsidy of more than $1 per trip.

He said that without the Government pumping in large amounts of upfront investments and recurrent subsidies, Singapore would likely have ended up with a less-developed public transport network and higher fares.