Commenting on the public transport ridership hitting 93.5 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, SMU Assistant Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship (Education) Terence Fan said public transport ridership is still “somewhat below” what is expected, based on commuting patterns in 2019. Asst Prof Fan noted that there were more MRT lines operating in 2023 than in 2019, with the addition of the Thomson-East Coast Line, but he said the decline in the number of bus rides from 4.1 million in 2019 to 3.75 million in 2023 did not correspond to an increase in MRT rides. He added that based on his calculations, point-to-point transport ridership has exceeded pre-Covid-19 levels slightly, after taking population increase into account.
