The Public Transport Council's (PTC) latest fare review exercise involved, as usual, striking a working balance between affordability for commuters and rising operating and maintenance costs borne by public transport operators. To that end, following three consecutive years of fare reductions that totalled 8.3 per cent, the fare cap of 4.3 per cent, which the PTC had announced earlier, will be implemented in this fare review exercise. Consequently, the card fares for buses and trains will rise by six cents per trip from Dec 29. However, student and senior citizen card fare increases will be capped at one cent, while their cash fares for buses will remain unchanged. The rise for lower-wage workers and people with disabilities will also be capped at one cent.

While commuters naturally dislike any fare increase, there are two points that need to be kept in mind. First, the PTC notes that costs have risen. Energy prices rebounded by 26.2 per cent, the wage index went up by 3 per cent, the core consumer price index rose by 1.5 per cent, and there are additional costs in improving connectivity and network capacity by operating more public transport services. Indeed, both rail operators have reported significant losses, drawing attention to the need to sustain a viable system of fares.