SBS Transit Q1 profit soared 63.7% to $16.8m

Revenue from public transport was higher due to fees earned from its bus contracting model.

SBS Transit's profits accelerated in the first quarter of 2018 as they soared 63.7% from $10.24m last year to $16.8m. Revenue was up 15.8% from $283.43m to $328.18m.

According to its financial statement, the revenue from its Public Transport Services jumped 16.3% to $313.3m due to higher fees earned under the Bus Contracting Model (BCM) with higher operated mileage, higher ridership from rail services with the commencement of Downtown Line (DTL) 3, and higher other operating income. This was offset by lower average rail fare from the fare reduction.

Meanwhile, higher other operating income was mainly from the one-off recovery of Seletar pre-operation costs and income from the provision of shuttle services.

Average daily ridership for the DTL grew by 75.8% to 431,000 passenger trips due to DTL 3 commencement. Average daily ridership for North-East Line grew by 0.9% to 584,000 passenger trips and that for the Light Rail Transit by 4.6% to 128,000 passenger trips.

As a result, operating profit increased due to higher revenue, offset by higher staff costs, higher repairs and maintenance costs, higher fuel and electricity costs, higher premises costs and higher other operating costs.

Revenue from SBS Transit's Other Commercial Services grew 6.6% to $14.9m due mainly to higher advertising revenue following the commencement of DTL 3. Consequently, operating profit for 1Q18 leapt by 13.3% to $10.2m.