‘A long time coming’: No more adult transport fares for polytechnic students, who look forward to student rates

SINGAPORE — It was a welcomed move to allow polytechnic and diploma students to pay lower transport fares and some of them said that it has been a long wait for this concession.

This means that they will join primary, secondary, junior college and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students who already pay concessionary fares when taking public buses and the MRT and LRT.

The student transport fares will apply for commuters studying diploma courses or in polytechnics from Dec 28. This was part of the Public Transport Council’s (PTC’s) broader announcements on Tuesday (Oct 8) regarding bus and train fare hikes.

These students holding the monthly Diploma Student Concession Card will pay concessionary fares capped at S$0.63 for each journey, down from the maximum of S$2.17 now.

Right now, the fares they pay when using the card is the standard adult fare.

More than 80,000 polytechnic and diploma students are expected to benefit from this, PTC said.

Polytechnic students are entitled to get a monthly stored-value Diploma Student Concession Card and three types of monthly pre-paid concession passes which are the Bus Concession Pass, Train Concession Pass and the Hybrid Concession Pass.

PTC said that it has been progressively extending concessions to polytechnic students, for example, by reducing the prices of the three pre-paid passes by almost 50 per cent in 2014 to equal that for secondary students.

The Hybrid Concession Pass, for example, which allows for unlimited travel on buses and trains, cost S$51. The prices of these passes, though, will go up from Dec 28, to S$54 for the hybrid one, for instance.

The move to extend student concessionary fares to polytechnic and other diploma students is “to align the treatment of secondary, junior college and polytechnic and diploma students,” a spokesperson from PTC said in response to TODAY’s queries.

‘POINT OF CONTENTION’ FOR YEARS

Associate Professor Walter Theseira, an urban transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), said that the extension of student fares to polytechnic and diploma students was a “long time coming”.

“I think it’s been a point of contention for a long time that polytechnic students do not benefit from the full concessionary fares that other students do. 

“Part of the thinking originally as to why polytechnic students were treated as adults was that (they were) regarded as tertiary students. They were also viewed as either going to get jobs or integrating work into their study programmes,” Assoc Prof Theseira said.

“It has been a long time coming. I think this extension is important as it sends a signal that these are students who are pretty much in the same stage of life as other pre-tertiary students, and they should get the same kind of subsidy,” he added.

The debate over polytechnic students having to pay higher transport fares compared with students from other schools had been ongoing over the years.

Back in 2012, online site Youth.SG ran an article discussing why polytechnic students had to pay more in transport fares. A few years back, online petitions were put up on Change.org, seeking student fares for people studying in polytechnics.

SAVINGS, FINALLY

Singapore Polytechnic student Jolyn Seow, 19, said the news of the lower fares is a “huge relief” for her.

“I never understood why polytechnic students had to pay the same fare as adults. It has always confused me how we’re still called ‘students’ yet we’re not exactly considered one.

“The change in transport fares from secondary school to polytechnic was huge. It was only on days when I forgot to take along my ez-link card and had to pay the adult fare that I realise how much I’ve been paying in fares every day.”

Ms Seow, who has a pre-paid Train Concession Pass and pays the adult fare for bus rides, said that she expected to save up to S$7 a week if she pays student fares on buses.

“This is a rightful change that I’m satisfied with,” she added.

One Republic Polytechnic student, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, also said that such an extension was a “long time coming”.

“I always wondered why polytechnic students have to pay adult fares. I remember polytechnic students lobbying for fairer fares in the past, so I’m happy that it is finally being implemented,” the second-year engineering student said.

Ms Nurdiyanah Jumari, 19, a Singapore Polytechnic student, currently uses the monthly pre-paid Hybrid Concession Pass and intends to continue doing so because her high usage of public transport makes it more cost effective than relying on the student fares. 

Nonetheless, she welcomes the change because she would be paying student fares instead of adult fares on days when she does not have her Hybrid Concession Pass or forgets to renew it.

“I take up to four trips on buses and trains a day, so that is about S$6. With the student fares, that will only be around S$2.40,” she said.