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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Don't dismiss call to nationalise public transport - Straits Times reader

PUBLIC transport has not improved considerably since it was privatised.

During peak hours, commuters are still packed like sardines, making a bus ride an extremely unpleasant experience.

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If public transport is nationalised and profit is not the top priority, bus operators would increase the frequency of buses during the peak hours.

Competition is good, but are the two bus operators really competing with each other? Or are they merely complementing each other as both operators serve different routes.

More often than not, we have only one choice of bus operator to reach our destination. Furthermore, commuters cannot differentiate the service levels between the two bus operators. So, where is the competition?

We should review this idea of privatising important infrastructure to achieve greater efficiency.

On the one hand, we are striving to have a greener environment by encouraging people to take public transport. But on the other, public transport is getting more expensive because it is profit-motivated. This dichotomous conundrum will probably be solved when we nationalise public transport.

When we nationalise public transport, we can control costs better, instead of leaving it to the free market to dictate the costs.


Joel Teh

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