singaporecity360° Every fare on this page comes from LTA's own table, fares effective from 27 december 2025. Read from the source, not from a summary.
Tap a card. Never pay cash.
A short adult journey costs S$1.28 with a stored-value or contactless card and S$2.10 in cash — 64% more for the same ride. On longer trips the gap reaches S$0.83. Cash also buys you no free transfers, which is where the real money goes.
Buses and trains share one fare table. Distance decides the price, not the mode.
| Distance | Card | Cash | You lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 3.2 km | S$1.28 | S$2.10 | +S$0.82 |
| 3.3–6.2 km | S$1.59 | S$2.30 | +S$0.71 |
| 6.3–9.2 km | S$1.82 | S$2.50 | +S$0.68 |
| 9.3–11.2 km | S$1.90 | S$2.70 | +S$0.80 |
| 11.3–15.2 km | S$2.07 | S$2.90 | +S$0.83 |
| 15.3–19.2 km | S$2.24 | S$3.00 | +S$0.76 |
| 19.3–23.2 km | S$2.36 | S$3.10 | +S$0.74 |
| over 23.2 km | S$2.57 | S$3.20 | +S$0.63 |
LTA / Public Transport Council official fare table · Fares effective from 27 December 2025 · transcribed 2026-07-29 from the published fare table. Cash is charged in coarser distance bands than card, so each cash band here is compared against the card fare at the far end of that band — the comparison least flattering to the point being made.
A Senior Citizen or Person-with-Disability concession card pays S$0.69 for that same short trip against S$1.28 for an adult. Worth knowing that the concession exists — whether a visitor can obtain one is on the unverified list below.
The adult card fare stops rising at S$2.57. Singapore is small enough that crossing the entire island costs less than a coffee, so distance is rarely the thing to optimise. Time is.
Fares are charged on the total distance travelled in one journey, regardless of mode and whether direct or with transfers.
The next bus service must differ in number from the preceding one; no exit and re-entry at the same train station.
Transfers to or from non-public buses - premium, shuttle, temporary, special, privately operated cross-border and tourist buses - do not qualify as valid transfers.
A private shuttle fare is paid on top of the public fare AND ends the fare journey, so a following public leg starts a fresh journey at the first band. This is why a flat-fare shuttle can cost more overall than a longer public bus ride.
Ranked by how often a visitor should reach for them.
1 lines covers nearly everything a visitor wants, it is air-conditioned, and it is immune to the traffic that makes road transport unpredictable in the evening. Tap in at the gate, tap out at the other end — the gate works out the distance and charges it. There is nothing to buy in advance and no zone to understand.
Plan a day with stations and exits worked out →Buses reach the places the rail network misses, and because fares are charged on total journey distance, a bus leg after a train ride usually adds only a few cents rather than a whole new fare. Tap the card on entry and on exit — missing the second tap is charged as if you rode to the end of the route.
Metered, honest, and worth it after the last train or with luggage. Our attraction pages carry the real taxi stands nearest each place with the walking distance to them, and the trip planner computes the fare from LTA's published formula rather than estimating it.
Grab and its competitors quote a fixed price before you accept, which removes the one thing people worry about. It is usually dearer than a metered taxi off-peak and can be sharply dearer in surge. Compare the quote against the meter estimate rather than assuming either is cheaper.
The old version of this article answered these. We have not re-checked the answers, so they are not repeated here as fact.
The old article quoted a price. We have not re-read it from the operator, and a pass only pays off above a certain number of rides — which depends on the fares above.
Card products and their terms changed more than once since the old article. Nothing here is quoted until it is read off the operator.
These vary by station and direction. The homepage shows a single approximate last-train time; a per-station table needs the operator timetable.
Not yet read from the operator.
This matters a lot to a visitor and we will not guess it.
This page was first published on 21 October 2024 and rewritten on 2026-07-29. The rewrite exists because Singapore's fares changed on 27 December 2025, and the earlier figures would now be wrong.