[sustran] Re: Determining MRT fares?

[Jain Alok]

I do not think there is anything wrong with determining fares close to the
opening of the project. At the planning stage the fares are notional. On
such free-standing project (I mean those projects targeted with a financial
or economical viability) and especially railway project where construction
period is long and accurate financial budgeting is often inaccurate, it is
difficult to determine fares at the planning stage (meaning at least 5-6
years before opening). Generally, a minimum return is targeted from the
planning stage and fares to achieve that return are determined closer to the
opening of the project (I am just stating what is common practice. It may
not be the best practice)

Alok Jain
Hong Kong
-----Original Message-----
From: Roberto Verzola [mailto:rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org]
Sent: December 3, 1999 8:51 PM
To: heckler at quickweb.com.ph
Subject: [sustran] Re: Determining MRT fares?


 >Skytrain, there has been debate about what fare to charge. It's a BOT 
 >project so the builder wanted to charge Php 44 (Php 40.8/US$1) from 
 >Quezon City where it starts to Makati where it currently ends. It is 
 >not clear whether fares would be distance based although there is 
 >talk to that effect. Anyway, the operator said that they needed to 
 >charge this much in order to get economic returns although malls are 
 >being built at the major stops from which the operator will earn 
 >income (in fact, at its inception, the malls were included precisely 
 >so that fares could be kept low and the operator could recoup its 
 >investment from their operation rather than the fare). The current 

It is a sad reflection of the kind of planning done with the Metro
Manila rail transit that the fare is being debated on when the project
is about to be finished, rather than before it was to be approved...

Roberto Verzola