Will PTC mandate a price rise (even the deferred bit from last yr) given that the price of oil has fallen to near US$60 from almost US$115 a barrel in June?
Public transport operators may submit their applications for fare review to the PTC for consideration by Dec 19. The decision will be announced in the first quarter of 2015, according to the press release.
To evaluate applications robustly, the PTC will take guidance from the fare review mechanism and fare adjustment formula recommended by the Fare Review Mechanism Committee and accepted by the Government in Nov 2013. (CNA)
If there is no price increase, then surely an early GE is on the horizon (First school holidays of 2015: Saturday 14th March to Sunday 22nd March), given that a very major issue is the pay-and-pay attitude of the PAP administration when it comes to public transport and the related issue of overcrowding on public tpt which has been improving since the govt threw our money at the problem: the government is putting back all the dividends it received from these two companies and then adding 35% more. So it’s wrong to say that the SMRT and ComfortDelgro are getting free lunches. At most the government is subsidising their lunches by 35%.
Why only yesterday CNA reported
Five new Peak Period Short Services (PPSS), designed to alleviate crowding, reduce waiting times and improve the reliability of feeder services during peak hours, will begin operating in the next two months, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Tuesday (Dec 16).
The five new services and their launch dates are:
Service 285P in Clementi: Dec 30, 2014
Service 265P in Ang Mo Kio: Jan 6, 2015
Service 903P in Woodlands: Jan 13, 2015
Service 811P in Yishun: Jan 20, 2015
Service 812P in Yishun: Jan 20, 2015
(Related post: https://atans1.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/want-to-win-big-pm-juz-do-the-right-things/
But even if there is a price rise, PM may be juz as clueless as he was in school and 2005 and hold an election. Actually he might not be that clueless because the world economy might take a turn for the worse. Lower oil ptrces might not solve the world’s economic problems because weak economic growth in Europe and China is one reason for the weak oil price.
Cynical Investor
*The writer blogs at http://atans1.wordpress.com