Distance based fare

I benefited from the new distance based fare on a bus trip from Marina Bay Sands to Stamford Road (to change to the MRT line). In the dark, I got down the bus 2 stops ahead of City Hall MRT. Realising my mistake, I took the next bus for the 2 stops. On alighting the bus, I found that the fare charged by the second bus was $0.00 as the fare for the total distance travelled was already covered by the fare deducted from the first bus.

Although this would appear to be a good idea, I felt that it was unnecessary and wasteful to incur the expenses of changing to the distance based fare. It would have been sufficient to increase the transfer rebate under the old system. The high cost of changing the system must be reflected in the higher fares that commuters have to pay over the long run.

Tan Kin Lian