Monday, April 16, 2012

45 minutes transfer limit is ridiculous

If you transfer from bus to mrt/lrt or vice versa, rebates will be given so that you'll only be charged for the total distance traveled. A transfer can be from:
  • the MRT/LRT to a bus service,
  • a bus service to another bus service, or
  • a bus service to the MRT/LRT

However, there is a limitation to it. To be eligible for a valid transfer, you would have to make the transfer from one service to another within 45 minutes. Basically, from the time you exit the gate at the MRT/LRT stations or when you tap your card at the bus exit card reader to the time you board the next service, it has to be within 45 minutes.

That is ridiculous. If the bus delay due to traffic conditions or the MRT travels very slowly, there goes your rebate. I'm not sure why is there a 45 minutes limit when there is also a limit that all the 5 transfers that you made on a single journey must be made within 2 hours from the time of your first boarding on the same journey.

I never get the next transfer rebate because after transferring so many trains and waiting so long for the train at each interchange, I'll never get the rebate. Why are there so many limits?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The transfer time limit is used to decide if u r taking 2 transport modes as part of same journey, or 2 separate journeys. With distance fare system, the concept of transfer rebate no longer exists. Anyway, in your case of transferring between a few trains, they are all within the train network and within the paid area, so they are all counted as a single trip. Transfer time limit applies only when u get out of the fare gates. So whether yr train runs fast or slow has no bearing on this time limit.

chantc said...

For those who are living centrally, it doesn't matter, but for those who doesn't, this distance fare system doesn't work. For e.g., if you take LRT to a bus stop, long distance bus ride, and a MRT ride. The distance may be within 2 hours, but it is more than 45mins after the long distance bus ride. So the last MRT ride does not qualify for the distance fare system.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if I follow your logic. My understanding is that, from yr example, all 3 modes should count as 1 single trip and enjoy distance fare if: (a) time between exiting LRT fare gate to boardIng bus is within 45 min, and (b) time between tapping out of bus and entering MRT fare gate is also within 45 min. U have 2 periods of 45 min to work with. Transfer time is not measured from time of boarding of yr LRT in the example.

chantc said...

Well, no it doesn't. I've been traveling that route at least once a month so I can confirm that it happens.

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