Last week, ZB reported that SMRT made 150 millions and ironically on the same page SMRT was asking for price increase in the fare!
I don't see anything wrong in making a profit. err... does it mean if it make a loss than you guys happy? So does it mean that it charges $10 per trip but make loss of $100 million it is ok?
Lets say there is 1 million MRT users. That is around $150 a year or $13 a month. Seriously, common if you don't let SMRT make profit, how to encourage SMRT to be efficient??? You want our public transport to be those kind that cannot make profit one izzit? Like that you know what will happen? basically the fare will go up even higher as nobody cares about efficiency. Why should they as there is nothing in it for them.
actually, no, you misunderstood my post.I agreed with night89mare....
Create competition and let the best win the race.
The authority had seen this as a possible solution to make them more efficient.
Open up the market and let them run the show and hopefully that it does not end up like the patrol with everybody making the same adjustment... either up and down almost at the same time.
Thank you for the clarification.
I think price control should be the last resort.
Let the market determine the fare. I know that such measure had failed and had lead to unhealthy competition. But why don't we give the public transport sector a try?
Sure, would you be willing to take the risk and have price increased even more than what it is increasing now?
There is no perfect way about it. The transport companies exist to make profit, else it will not exist. Who can decide what is fair increase? It depends on an agreement between the groups on both side of the fence. As it is, the price is regulated to ensure that the cost is affordable.
I don't see anything wrong in making a profit. err... does it mean if it make a loss than you guys happy? So does it mean that it charges $10 per trip but make loss of $100 million it is ok?
heard their staff got very good variable bonus.
actually, no, you misunderstood my post.
perfect competition in the transportation market would not work in singapore. sure, the infrastructure is already there - for the most part, in terms of lines being laid, and a network already in place.
dividing up the pie, however, is not very viable - you are likely to end up with fragmented companies with increased overheads compared to what you could achieve with economies of scale with current situation. i would call this a natural monopoly - i.e. it isn't exactly enforced, but no one can break in because of the way things are.
nor would it have worked from the start either - sooner or later any fragmented company would merge in this situation.
to get companies which are viable in a perfect competition situation - you need a very unique sort of structure - bubble tea shops and dim sum chains are one example of this.
the only viable solution that MIGHT work is to actually regulate transportation fares - i.e. set price controls equivalent to their operating costs. this , unfortunately, will more often than not, as seen in the past in other countries (albeit on different situations) cause another sort of problem - like inefficiency, or a blatant waste of resources because there is no incentive whatsoever to keep costs down.
singapore is far too small.
I wonder why Hong Kong Bus Transport seem to be always work better than Singapore, they have competition also :sweat:actually, no, you misunderstood my post.
perfect competition in the transportation market would not work in singapore. sure, the infrastructure is already there - for the most part, in terms of lines being laid, and a network already in place.
dividing up the pie, however, is not very viable - you are likely to end up with fragmented companies with increased overheads compared to what you could achieve with economies of scale with current situation. i would call this a natural monopoly - i.e. it isn't exactly enforced, but no one can break in because of the way things are.
nor would it have worked from the start either - sooner or later any fragmented company would merge in this situation.
to get companies which are viable in a perfect competition situation - you need a very unique sort of structure - bubble tea shops and dim sum chains are one example of this.
the only viable solution that MIGHT work is to actually regulate transportation fares - i.e. set price controls equivalent to their operating costs. this , unfortunately, will more often than not, as seen in the past in other countries (albeit on different situations) cause another sort of problem - like inefficiency, or a blatant waste of resources because there is no incentive whatsoever to keep costs down.
singapore is far too small.
i also hear it may not be as good as sia.
but that hardly matters, does it? :dunno:
I wonder why Hong Kong Bus Transport seem to be always work better than Singapore, they have competition also :sweat: