Guide to saving transport fares (Mainly for students)

• Ngweitong

  4 Nov 10, 19:02

  Guide to saving money on Public Transport Written by Ng Wei Tong I have decided to come up with this guide, which is my own personal experience. this guide is mainly for students, which will be splitted in many parts. Feedbacks and comments are greatly welcomed. Installment 1 - Bus Concession Pass As a student from Primary 1, the MOE issues everyone of us a school smart card, which is also a cepas card, used for talking public transport. Of course, student fares are cheaper than adult fares, bus, there is also a way to save more, and ride more. To get around in singapore, many of us have to rely on bus services to get to the nearest train station. Hence, bus have become the most convenient mode of transport. So, with the benefit that Transitlink gives to all concession card holders, we should make good use of it, which is the Bus Concession Pass (BCP). The Bus Concession Pass offers Unlimited amount of bus rides on all basic trunks and feeders, which also means unlimited amount of transfer(s). Price of BCP per month as follows: Primary - $22.50 Secondary - $27.50 Tertiary - $52.00 Full Time NS men - $61.00 How do we know if it is worth buying BCP? Do up a calculation: (Price of BCP per month) - (Total amount spent on your BUS fares per month) If you get a negative value in the above calculation, your BCP is well spent, the greater the negative number, the more you will need one. or, a rough gauge would be (Price of BCP per month) divide by 1 month (30 days) = n If the total amount of BUS fare per day is greater than the value of n, it is worth the money.
• Ngweitong

  4 Nov 10, 22:19

  Nobody support? Sibeh pathetic...
• sbst275

  4 Nov 10, 22:31

  eh it depends on your travelling pattern

  esp now there's distance fare, it can make or break e concession pass

• Ngweitong

  5 Nov 10, 00:04

  But of course the BCP gives unlimited rides, thats the good thing, so can bus hopping to give you more choice
• theyj

  5 Nov 10, 00:18

  Well done on just finding this out. *claps*

• Call4ljw

  5 Nov 10, 00:37

  Originally posted by Ngweitong:

  But of course the BCP gives unlimited rides, thats the good thing, so can bus hopping to give you more choice

  It mainly works on people who often travel by bus, and more if they do not do transfers.

  Otherwise, i doubt it is a good idea.

  There was once which i did so many transfers(dont ask why), that one of the rides was free lol.

• Ngweitong

  5 Nov 10, 11:47

  I have more installments coming up, how to make good use of BCP, if anyone have suggestions can post here or PM me... Thanks for all the support
• Ngweitong

  5 Nov 10, 12:18

  Here is the second installment: Installment 2 - Convert train rides Now that you have a BCP, you have unlimited rides and transfers on basic bus services. With this benefit, you can go an extra mile by converting all your train rides into bus rides, but of course it is time consuming. At the end of the day, you would have realised that you only paid the price of your BCP, and no need to top-up extra amount for train fares. Eg. Person A travels to and fro between Woodlands and Ang Mo Kio everyday. He uses BCP for riding on feeders to the train station, and then travel by MRT between this 2 stations. Person B also travels to and fro between Woodlands and Ang Mo Kio everyday. He also uses BCP, and travels between this 2 places by bus. After all, person A would pay extra for train fares. The next coming installments would be on Train concession pass and more guide on minimising travel time on buses.