Workers’ Party (WP) MP Louis Chua pitched reforms to Singapore’s Bus Contracting Model and rail financing in his adjournment motion raised on Tuesday (Aug. 4). Chief among those were suggestions to relook the government’s expenditure on bus package tenders and nationalise the rail system under a publicly-owned national rail operator. Chua also questioned if Singapore is on track to have 75% of all peak hour journeys carried out via public transport by 2030. In response, Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling said “a race to the bottom based on price alone” can cause “unnecessary churn that affects day-to-day service quality”. She also noted that bus tender bids are assessed first on quality, then on price. On the suggestion to move towards a single, publicly-owned national operator, Sun said the current New Rail Financing Framework allows the government to “take a long-term view of asset renewal, drive common standards, and coordinate investments across the rail network”. “Ultimately, the question is not what industry model we have. Rather, the test is whether we are able to operate our network to deliver good service,” she said, adding that LTA has exceeded its service target of 1 million mean kilometres between failure. Images via Canva, MDDI/YouTube #mothershipparliament
♬ original sound – Mothership –
@mothershipsg
