Late last month, public transport operator RapidPenang announced an increase in its fares in line with the new ceiling prices set by the government.

The increases were as much as 40% for the basic fare and somewhat lower for longer distances.

While most passengers are automatically against fare increases, it is good to know the factors behind these fare increases so that we can determine whether they are ‘fare' or not.

We know that public transport in Malaysia is privatised so companies are aiming to cover their costs and gain profits.

This is not necessary unreasonable as long as profit does not come at the expense of service and the customers.

We know that the prices as set by the government are ceiling prices, meaning that operators can offer lower prices if they choose to.

We also know that RapidPenang is a government-owned operator, so if they offer lower prices (even if they have lower overall costs) they get accused of unfair competition.

And finally, we know that the operating costs for some operators have increased over the past few years, but they have also decreased recently as the economy has moved into recession.

Armed with this information, we should be able to look at the fare increase by RapidPenang and determine if it is valid or not.

But unfortunately, we need more information and RapidPenang is unwilling to share information with the public about why they needed to increase their fares.

So in that kind of environment, it is no surprise that people get frustrated, and sometimes people who get frustrated speak out of turn.

A good example of this would be the recent comments by Ng Wai Aik, Penang DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) secretary and political secretary to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Ng went public with the results of a survey that claimed that people were unhappy with the service offered by RapidPenang and thus, it had no justification to increase its fare.

In fact, it is Ng who had no justification in making a comment like that based on a limited and arguably shoddy survey, in the media.

But his frustration is understandable - without real information from RapidPenang , the fare increase just seems like a cash grab.

What Ng should have done was to expand his survey, improve on the methodology, and then take the results to Penang's Transport Council (PTC).

The PTC could then evaluate the results of the survey and examine the data provided by RapidPenang and make suggestions or give feedback about the fare increase.

What would make it even better would be if the PTC actually included the bus operators as members.

According to Chow Kon Yeow, local government and traffic management committee chair, the PTC was set up last month to solve the problem of traffic congestion.

It was to function as a one-stop agency, to plan, act and advise the state government on issues related to transport and traffic flow.

The council members comprise government officers, experts in public transport and traffic management, university officials and research organisations.

But where are the operators?

The Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit believes that the PTC needs to be more active and visible for the improvement of public transport in the state.

The PTC should be the top authority for public transport in the state, and should give feedback and approval on things like routes, infrastructure planning, finances and fare collection.

And most importantly, the PTC must bring together all four stakeholders - the government, the local authority, the public and NGOs and the operators.

It is only when all stakeholders are working together for the improvement of public transport that we will be able to extract ourselves from this horrible jam.