Transportation is expensive, with bus and train fares climbing steadily, but polytechnic students are still paying adult prices up to 89 percent more than what their pre-university counterparts pay.
Three years ago, a Ngee Ann student created an online petition calling for a fare reduction. More than 27,500 signatures have been collected since, but nothing has changed.
In 1977, students from Singapore Polytechnic and the then Ngee Ann Technical College petitioned Singapore Bus Services (SBS) to charge pre-university and polytechnic students the same fares.
SBS answered: “If we grant the concession to Poly and Ngee Ann students, we might have to extend this to the universities. This will mean a loss of $3 million to $4 million a year. Straightaway, we would run in the red.”
Last year, SBS Transit and SMRT Corporation posted a combined profit of more than $200 million. Can they still justify the price difference?
Concessionary fares should be standardised for all pre-university and tertiary students.
Written for npTribune.
2 responses so far ↓
HRM // November 15, 2008 at 12:39 am |
I am He Ruiming and I approve this message.
jorge // December 29, 2008 at 12:53 pm |
den ask them to raise the fares for JC students also lor.
“straightaway, they would run in the green.”