Deficit for public bus ops narrows to $852m, lowest in seven years

This comes on the back of lower fees paid to bus operators and higher fare revenue

- Kok Yufeng

The annual deficit incurred by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to keep public bus services here running has narrowed to a seven-year low of $852 million.

LTA's latest financial statements showed that the deficit from public bus operations fell below the $1 billion mark for the first time in six years, down from a high of about $1.2 billion two years ago.

The drop was driven largely by an increase in fare revenue collected by LTA from public bus rides, and lower fees paid to transport firms contracted to run public bus services here.

This means fewer tax dollars were needed to fund government subsidies to cover the shortfall for the financial year (FY) that ended on March 31, 2024.

In Singapore, buses operate under a contracting model, which means the Government owns all operating assets and collects fares. Transport firms such as SBS Transit and SMRT bid for contracts to run bus routes over a fixed period of time for a fixed fee.

Fare revenue from buses grew to $898 million in FY2023/2024, a rise of about 9 per cent from $821 million previously.

This was higher than the $862 million collected by LTA in FY2019/2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck and public transport ridership took a nosedive.

Bus and train ridership has since bounced back, though not yet fully recovered. In the first half of 2024, average daily ridership was estimated to be about 97 per cent of the levels in 2019.

Bus and train fares also increased over successive years.