Items contributing to higher operating expenses include staff costs (up 12.6 per cent at $98.84 million), repairs and maintenance (up 14.7 per cent at $28.33 million) and higher energy costs (up 2.7 per cent at $44.82 million).

Attacked, but they just stared

My sister and I have lost faith in the kindness of Singaporeans — except for one

Letter from Irene Teo

ON SATURDAY evening, my sister boarded SBS bus No 30 along West Coast Road, heading for the Esplanade. She took a seat on the upper deck.

A male passenger took the seat next to her, positioning himself very close to my sister. She asked him to give her a little space. In response, he inched even closer.

Then, to her utter surprise, he punched her several times on her head.

My sister tried to defend herself, but she was no match for this man. He held her wrists and continued his attack, hitting her on the head and in the stomach.

As a result of the attack, my sister sustained bruises on her head, neck and arms.

The struggle lasted for 30 minutes and was witnessed by all the passengers seated on the upper deck, but during the entire incident, not one of them tried to intervene and stop the attack.

None of the passengers even bothered to help my sister pick up her belongings.

Only one passenger — Benjamin Tan Wei Kiong — who had been seated on the lower deck came to her aid.

Benjamin heard the commotion and headed upstairs. He asked the bus driver to stop the bus and call the police.

But the driver refused to, saying that the SBS command centre had told him to drive on.

After this shocking incident, there are a few crucial issues I want to highlight:

• Why didn’t the bus driver stop the bus? Driving on meant my sister, as well as other passengers on the bus, was put at risk of another attack.

• Why didn’t the bus driver contact the police? Surely all bus personnel have been trained as to what to do when a passenger is assaulted.

Even if he had been instructed to drive on and not stop, couldn’t he have assessed the severity of the situation and taken action?

• Most importantly, why did no one on the upper deck come forward to help my sister? Thanks to the inaction and apathy of the spectators on the bus, my sister is nursing not just her physical bruises but also the emotional hurt from the fact that no one bothered to help her.

This incident has made me lose faith in the kindness of Singaporeans.

The only glimmer of hope is the existence of Good Samaritans such as 22-yearold Benjamin, who helped my sister and who later spent his Saturday night at the police station with us.

Thank you, Benjamin.

Capacity n biz footprint far diff loh!!

SB opt only MRT NE line, d rest SMRT bao liao.

SB opt LRT on Senkang n Punggol. SMRT take part in Bkt Panjang. No significant in comparision.

Generally, SMRT is a dominant player in d nation's rail n/w n its biz at taxis have a sinificant protern in Spore vibrant transport landscape. It will still own most of d remaining new rail n/w, on completion.