Same-day refund soon for most bus & MRT fare claims

By Goh Chin Lian, The Straits Times, 13 Mar 2012

INSTEAD of waiting the current five days, commuters will soon be able to get a same-day refund for being overcharged or forgetting to tap their stored value cards on the readers when alighting.

And from today, they can ask for the refund to be credited into their cards using ticketing machines at bus interchanges and MRT stations.

Customers from 16 Giro-participating banks can also opt for the refund to be credited into their bank accounts. Currently, only DBS and POSB customers can do this.

The service improvements were announced yesterday by TransitLink, a subsidiary of the Land Transport Authority that collects bus and train fares and redistributes them to public transport operators.

It expects the same-day refunds to be in place some time after June. Other measures include shortening the process to apply for and replace a concession card.

Commuters can now pay for the replacement of concession cards through TransitLink's new corporate website at www.transitlink.com.sg

The replacement will come in five days instead of 10 now. They can also check online if the lost card has been found.

The more Internet-savvy elderly can go online as well to apply for their first concession card for senior citizens.

Commuters have long complained about the hassle in obtaining refunds and new concession cards. The refunds, which can sometimes come to just a few cents, were sent by cheque if commuters did not have a DBS or POSB account or had to be collected in person at TransitLink offices.

TransitLink said it had planned the improvements for the past two years, but put them on hold because of 'national-level projects' such as the switch to a new smartcard in 2009 and the introduction of distance-based fares in 2010.

Out of five million transactions carried out daily on public transport, about 100 claims for refunds are made each day. The implementation of a same-day refund system could encourage more people to claim refunds.

TransitLink could not provide the total value of the current refunds. It expects the new system to allow commuters to obtain same-day refunds for 70 per cent of the claims which it considers more straightforward.

For instance, more than 60 per cent of the claims are due to passengers not tapping their cards properly, it said. Fares may also be deducted twice when a passenger exits from the front of a bus.