Transport group SBS Transit has posted a 63.7 per cent rise in first-quarter earnings to $16.8 million.

Revenue for the three months to March 31 rose by 15.8 per cent to $328.2 million.

Earnings per share soared to 5.39 cents from 3.3 cents previously while net asset value per share climbed to $1.50 compared to $1.44 as at Dec 31.

Revenue from Public Transport Services climbed by 16.3 per cent to $313.3 million, due mainly to higher fees earned under the government-mandated Bus Contracting Model as well as higher operated mileage, higher ridership from rail services following the commencement of Downtown Line (DTL) 3 from Oct 21, and higher other operating income.

This was offset by lower average rail fare from the fare reduction effective from Dec 29.

Higher other operating income was mainly from the one-off recovery of Seletar pre-operation costs and income from the provision of shuttle services.

Average daily ridership during the quarter for the DTL grew by 75.8 per cent to 431,000 passenger trips due to DTL 3's commencement. Average daily ridership for North-East Line grew by 0.9 per cent to 584,000 passenger trips while that for the Light Rail Transit rose by 4.6 per cent to 128,000 passenger trips.

Looking ahead, revenue from Public Transport Services is expected to be higher.

Bus service revenue is expected to be higher with commencement of the Seletar Bus Package from March 11.

In February, the company was awarded the Bukit Merah Bus Package which will commence operations in the fourth quarter.

Rail service revenue is expected to be higher with a full-year revenue contribution from DTL 3. However, this will be affected by the fare reduction effective from Dec 29.