Singapore MRT & Bus Fares — Tap a Card, or Buy the Tourist Pass?
Singapore makes paying easy: there are no paper tickets, and the card you already carry probably works. What's worth understanding is how fares are worked out — and whether a Tourist Pass actually saves you anything.
How to pay
- Contactless bank card or phone — Visa, Mastercard, American Express and NETS cards with the contactless symbol, including foreign cards, and Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. No registration: just tap at the gate or on the bus. (Maestro, JCB and UnionPay are not accepted, and there's no QR payment.)
- EZ-Link card — S$10 (S$5 for the card plus S$5 of travel value). Handy for children's and seniors' concessions, which bank cards don't give.
- Cash — buses only, exact fare, no change, and noticeably dearer than tapping. There are no single-trip train tickets.
Foreign card fee: foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards pay a S$0.60 admin fee per day of travel on top of fares, and your own bank may add currency charges. On a one-day visit with a few trips, that fee can make an EZ-Link card or the Tourist Pass the cheaper choice.
Always tap in and out with the same card or phone — on buses too. Tap a wallet holding several cards and the reader can't tell which to charge. Boarding without tapping counts as fare evasion, with a S$50 penalty.
How fares work
You pay for the total distance of your journey, whether it's train, bus or both — changing doesn't cost you a new fare. A journey can include up to five transfers within two hours, with up to 45 minutes between a train and a bus (or two buses) and 15 minutes between different train stations.
| Adult card fare | Now | From 26 Dec 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Shortest trips (up to 3.2 km) | S$1.28 | S$1.40 |
| Longest trips (over 40.2 km) | S$2.57 | S$2.70 |
| Bus cash fare | S$2.10–3.20 | S$2.30–3.40 |
Early birds pay less: tap in at an MRT or LRT station before 7.45am on a weekday (not public holidays) and the train fare is 50 cents cheaper.
The Singapore Tourist Pass
| Pass | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 day | S$17 |
| 2 days | S$24 |
| 3 days | S$29 |
| 4 days | S$37 |
| 5 days | S$45 |
Unlimited standard bus and train travel for consecutive days; a "day" runs until the end of that day's service. The card is yours to keep (there's no deposit) and works as a normal top-up card afterwards. It does not cover the Sentosa Express monorail, the Mandai Khatib (M2) zoo bus, the RWS8 bus or express and premium buses.
Is it worth it? Most single trips cost S$1.30–2.60. A day of sightseeing with four or five rides comes to roughly S$8–12 on a card, plus S$0.60 if your card is foreign. So the 1-day pass rarely pays off; the 3-day pass (under S$10 a day) can, if you're on the move from morning to night. Buy it at Changi Airport T2 and T3, or at Orchard, Bugis, HarbourFront and other major stations.
Check before you tap
The live tracker shows bus arrivals and train crowding; for a fare quote, LTA's MyTransport.SG app works out the exact amount for a journey.
