Yay. Lower transport fares with effect from 1st April 2009

Ok. Here is a piece of good news. Transport fares will be lowered with effect from 1st April 2009 to 30 June 2010 to help ease financial burden of Singaporeans. This move in my opinion is timely as small cuts in essential services such as transport will amount to significant savings over a year.

For adult ezlink fares, 2 cents will be cut across all farebands. Transfer rebate will be increased from the existing 40 cents to 50 cents. This increment of transfer rebate will of course encourage more people to transfer between buses and trains and thus seen as a move to integrate the provision of two types of services together. Instead of wasting much time waiting for a direct bus service to bring us from place to place, we can have more choices to go from point A to point B through transfers.
In my opinion, we can only enjoy the benefit greatly if we are aware of the choices present to us.

For child and student, 1 cent will be cut and for concession stamps, primary and secondary school stamps will be cut by $1 while for NSFs, tertiary concession stamps, they will be cut by $2.

Hopefully, all these initiatives by the Public Transport Council (PTC) can encourage more people to take public transport and make it an attractive option as compared to private transport. Singapore is a country where a significant number of people takes public transport. The move towards distance based fares is still ongoing and it is set to be implemented next year instead of October this year. Nevertheless, we have lower prices to enjoy while waiting. In addition, more MRT lines are on the way. Expect more good news in the days ahead.