Transport Minister: All Bus Services Are Running at a Loss Now Even When We’re at Phase 2

The next time you board a bus, remember: the amount you pay isn’t enough to cover the cost of operating the bus.

In fact, chances are that even before COVID-19, you’d have probably boarded a bus that was actually running at a loss.

Transport Minister: All Bus Services Are Running at a Loss Now Even When We’re at Phase 2

Clone of Daniel Dae Kim and new Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung revealed some shocking numbers in Parliament yesterday.

Or it might not be shocking if you’ve downloaded the Goody Feed app and read all the news that are simplified for you.

Public transport operators have been running at a loss, though you might be scratching your head and wondering: Eh, I thought I’ve already been reading news that they’ve net profit?

Well, that was before COVID-19, and even so, you must understand that revenue doesn’t just come from commuters but other sources as well, like advertisements on and in the bus.

But if you dive deeper into how much it cost to run a bus service and how much revenue it collects from fares, it turns out that prior to COVID-19, only 11 out of 356 bus services in Singapore are earning money.

Everyone who reads this: Yes, it must be the bus I take to work every morning. Always so crowded confirm earn a lot.

Right. But after COVID-19 hit, all bus services are now in the red.

Minister Ong, who was responding to a question by Workers’ Party MP Dennis Tan, said, “Prior to Covid-19, and as a result of better frequencies and service standards, 345 out of 356 public bus services generate fare revenues that cannot cover their operating costs and require government subsidies.

“This amounts to a total of about $1 billion per year.”

During the Circuit Breaker period, ridership for train and bus fell sharply by around 75%.

Now, the decrease is about 40%.

But if you’re worried that the fares would increase, fret not; while SBS Transit and SMRT have both understandably request for fare increase, the Public Transport Council (PTC) refused to allow the increase because of obvious reasons.

Just last month, SBS Transit posted a 27.4% drop in first-half net earnings to $32.6 million.

Reader Bao: Holy, that means still got profit—

That was primarily due to the Government relief, if not it would have incurred an operating loss of $29.4 million.

While a loss would certainly make Reader Bao feel better, I think I won’t need to tell you the repercussions of a public transport operator going out of business, do I?

Lest you’ve forgotten, prior to COVID-19, the Government has expected to spend almost $1 billion to renew and upgrade the rail operating assets, and another $1 billion to subsidise public bus services annually over the next five years.

Like what many have said, the minister with a clone in the US has just taken up one of the toughest jobs in Singapore.