Daily Lessons from Life 17 February 2014 - Maximum fine for rail disruptions raised to 10 per cent of line's annual fare revenue

"Maximum fine for rail disruptions raised to 10 per cent of line's annual fare revenue - The Straits Times | Monday, Feb 17, 2014

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the new penalty guidelines will better reflect the severity of incidents and their impact on commuters, as well as enhance their deterrent effect."

Goodness me! 10% of line's annual fare revenue be the maximum penalty for rail disruptions?

Lessons for me are:

1. 10% of line's annual fare revenue IS a very scary figure indeed. As a deterrent, it will DEFINITELY 'scare' or 'spurt' the transportation companies to make sure that they will NEVER come to face this maximum penalty!;

2. while I am not getting soft-hearted about the 2 transportation companies that run our subway or MRT having to pay such punishing penalties, I wondered aloud WHAT if the faults are indeed 'aging infrastructure' that will NEED MORE than the accumulated capital of the Companies to fix; since many of them were 'given' by the government at the start of the whole scheme? (Am I right? i.e that golden S$1 share by the government for ALL the infrastructure built initially?);

3. however, if the various disruptions were due to 'employing low waged foreign workers coupled by loose or poor supervision by their supervisors as a result of awarding purely based on lowest price bidders', then there are real opportunities to prevent the disruptions from recurring and occurring.

I wonder what will happen to the prices of SBSTransit and SMRT? :-)