Public Transport Council Chairman Powerless?

It has been ages and the issue of why tertiary students like full-time students from Polytechnics and Universities have to pay significantly higher transport fares as compared to non working peers from Junior Colleges and ITEs still lingers.

Just this month, petitions are set up to help bring this issue to the public and hope the government can bring some fairness to these group of tertiary students. The government should be mindful full-time tertiary students are without an income and they require monthly allowances from family. Having to pay approximately 80% higher transport fares is nonsensical.

Public Transport Council (PTC) chairman, Gerard Ee, pointed out that its hands are tied.

"It's not within our power to force operators to give concessions - that's up to the operators. We can only encourage operators to continue to be generous with transport cuts."

From PTC website,

The core functions of PTC, as governed by the PTC Act, include:

• Licensing of bus services that charge fares;
• Regulating bus service standards;
• Licensing of bus service operators;
• Licensing of transit ticket payment service providers; and
• Regulating bus and train fares.

I am now getting confused about the role of the PTC. Just what can the public do?

Fare deal for poly students, please [via]