SINGAPORE – After years of investment on expanding and improving Singapore’s transport infrastructure, the topic of financial sustainability was raised by Acting Transport Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament on Thursday (March 7).

Dr Balakrishnan pointed out that spending on transport has “more than doubled over the last 10 years, from $5.4 billion in 2009 to $11.5 billion in 2019”.

For instance, the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will open from the end of this year. It will add another 32 stations and 43km to the MRT network, and “eventually serve up to one million commuters”.

Dr Balakrishnan noted: “By around 2030, we can look forward to the opening of Circle Line Stage 6, the Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line. We added 200 trains over the last five years. We also introduced over 1,000 buses under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme.”

But “we need to exercise fiscal discipline to reduce costs and maximise value for money”, he added.

To this end, he cited cases of where planners had taken steps to reduce cost. For example, the Land Transport Authority had saved $2 billion in construction costs with the East Coast Integrated Depot by stacking three MRT depots and a bus depot “on top of each other… the first such facility of its kind”.

The next thing was to keep a focus on life-cycle costs when procuring major assets. When the first generation North-South, East-West line trains were due for renewal, Singapore sought out systems “that are easier and cheaper to maintain” throughout their 30-year lifespan.

Dr Balakrishnan also said contestability has helped bring down bids of the average bus contract “by about 20 per cent” since the first bus package awarded in 2015.

Incentives to shift commuter behaviour to spread out demand for transport capacity has been another way to optimise usage.

Differential fares for travel during off-peak hours have worked, the minister said, noting that 12 per cent of commuters now travel during the morning pre-peak period.

“We will continue to look for ways to smoothen out travel demand, while being mindful that not all commuters have the flexibility to change their commuting patterns,” he said.

Even with all these measures to maximise value, Dr Balakrishnan pointed out that “a high-quality public transport system still requires significant resources”.

For instance, adding capacity means additional cost. Hence the Public Transport Council introduced the Network Capacity Factor last year to reflect new capacity added to the system, vis-a-vis actual demand for them.

Even so, the Government will continue to keep fares affordable, he said. For instance, it will fund all infrastructure costs and provide operating subsidies.

Dr Balakrishnan emphasised that Singapore has to strike “a balance between affordability and long-term fiscal sustainability of our transport system”.

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