The Chairman of the Public Transport Council (PTC) Richard Magnus published a blog post today (Apr 5) lying that the train service has improved and become more reliable.
The PTC Chairman claimed that service has improved “two-fold”:
“These changes have resulted in service improvements. Ridership has also grown. Bus services have become less crowded. The number of crowded services had fallen by 85% since the inception of the BSEP. The trains have also become more reliable. Mean Kilometre Between Failure (MKBF) – a key measurement of how far trains across our network travel before encountering a delay of more than 5 minutes – has improved two-fold from 58,000 train-km in 2011 to 174,000 train-km in 2016. Our feedback shows that these changes and service improvements have benefitted commuters.”
The PTC Chairman also announced that the fare formula will be expiring in 2017 and that the government will come out with a new formula to make public transport more “sustainable” -hinting Singapore commuters to pay more. As a propaganda front, “dialogue sessions” will be conducted island-wide.
Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan has earlier last month said in Parliament that Singaporeans should be more “understanding” when fare increases:
“PTC cannot always bring good news. Sometimes, they have to adjust fares upwards. If they do, I hope commuters will be understanding.”
The new public transport financing model – a form of legalised corruption to secure profits for state-owned companies SMRT and SBS Transit – was introduced last year and gave more than S$1.2 billion in bailout fund for SMRT.