Take-up Rate for Early Morning Free Peak Hour Travel on MRT

Mr R Dhinakaran asked the Minister for Transport (a) what has been the take-up rate on the early morning free peak hour travel on the MRT; and (b) what has been its impact in spreading the early morning peak hour demand.

Mr Lui Tuck Yew: The one-year free travel trial was launched on 24 June 2013 to alleviate congestion on the rail network by offering commuters free travel for the rail leg of their journey if they exit any of 16 city area stations before 7.45 am, and up to 50 cents discount for exits between 7.45 am and 8.00 am.

So far, the trial has resulted in about 7% decrease in exits for the peak period of 8.00 am to 9.00 am, and about 19% increase in exits for the pre-peak period of between 7.00 am and 8.00 am. Another way of looking at the effectiveness of the trial in smoothening the morning peak period travel is to compare the ratio of exits for the peak period hour between 8.00 am and 9.00 am, with that for the pre-peak hour between 7.00 am and 8.00 am. For the 16 city MRT stations, encouragingly, this ratio has gone down to 2.1 after the implementation of the free travel trial, compared to 2.7 before the trial.

It is still early days yet for us to draw conclusions about what the sustainable changes will be. We will continue to monitor the trial and will provide a more detailed assessment in due course.