Daily Lessons from Life 17 January 2014 - Workers' Party urges government to delay fare hikes

"Workers' Party urges government to delay fare hikes - CNA 17 January 2014

SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party (WP) has called on the government to delay increasing public transport fares until concession schemes for low-wage workers and people with disabilities have been implemented.

It said that new and enhanced concession schemes for people with disabilities, senior citizens, low-wage workers, students and full-time national servicemen "should not be used as a sweetener to make the latest fare increases palatable".
The party noted the fare hikes come on the back of a $1.1 billion government injection into the Bus Services Enhancement Fund last year, and despite regular train breakdowns.

In a reply on her Facebook page, Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo said that the Workers' Party's response to the fare review exercise was largely predictable.
She said the WP "never misses an opportunity to pander", and that it had "claimed credit for the concessions".
Mrs Teo said: "But, WP wants better services. It conveniently avoids the question of how better services are to be paid for," added Mrs Teo.

Mrs Teo also said in her Facebook post, "More buses, more drivers, more trips on the road, more depots and interchanges, more maintenance, more equipment. In WP's world, these things can all be achieved without more effort and resources. Not in the real world."
She added that most reasonable commentators agree that the current package of fare increase coupled with significant concessions is to be lauded.
She said the "government will contribute as much as commuters are contributing, while fares are kept affordable.
"And one million plus commuters stand to benefit -- and many have said they appreciate it.""

I went to the WP site and read their full statement on this matter and have some lessons to learn from this political talking to and fro:

1. some of the concessions indeed HAD BEEN asked for by the people the concessions are going to be given to e.g. the poly kids, the disabled, etc. WP's statement said: 'these are the concessions that the public, and WP, have been asking for.' The WP's statement DID NOT said: "WP, and the public, have been asking for.";

2. it is interesting for Mrs Teo to mention that: "government WILL contribute AS MUCH AS commuters are CONTRIBUTING, while fares are kept affordable." This is UNWISE as it seems to be implying that the GOVERNMENT, with all the resources and the DUTIES to make sure that Singapore has a world class and affordable public transport system, is asking the lower waged workers and the disadvantaged to do something before it will do something in return! While we DO NOT want to develop a 'everything must wait for government' mindset in the citizenry, surely the issues of public transportation, defense and medical healthcare must have the GOVERNMENT leading the charge;

3. the fact that we DO NOT really have a COMPETITIVE public transportation system with the trains and bus routes split between 2 major public listed companies, though government has some shares in them indirectly, makes the 'allegation' that 'if the commuters want high service quality, who is going to fund or where is the fund going to come from' argument very tedious!

As I have written on numerous occasions, COMPETITION is what will REALLY drive  improvement in quality, and may even drive the prices DOWN! Of course, I don't have the data and information that the PTC has to 'work the maths' and I will leave this to the experts.

Suffice to say IF the commuters are muted about the increase, it probably means they can accept it.