SWITCH TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT

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SWITCH TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT:

(Measures): 11.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Transport (a) what measures are being considered to encourage drivers to switch to public transport and reduce usage of their private vehicles; (b) what is the current usage of the Park and Ride Scheme and whether there are plans to enhance the Scheme; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider setting up platforms to encourage car pooling.

12.

Mrs Josephine Teo asked the Minister for Transport if there are plans to improve (i) the Park and Ride Scheme to enable more vehicle owners to use public transport as an alternative mode of transport into the Central Business District; and (ii) the feeder bus services as these contribute significantly to the overall travel times of commuters.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Mrs Lim Hwee Hua) (for the Minister for Transport): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take

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Question Nos. 11 and 12 together as they are related?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua: The crux of Mrs Josephine Teo's and Dr Lim Wee Kiak's questions is how we can encourage more people, especially the drivers, to use public transport. Sir, we are tackling this on two fronts: (a) firstly, enhancing our public transport services to improve the areas that matter most to commuters such as the travelling and waiting time; and (b) secondly, enabling motorists to switch to public transport more easily if they wish to do so.

Mrs Josephine Teo and Dr Lim Wee Kiak both highlighted the Park and Ride Scheme as an area to look into. I agree. We should do more to encourage car owners to Park and Ride because it provides motorists with an additional option to use public transport for their daily commute. LTA is currently undertaking a review of the existing scheme with Transitlink which administers the scheme.

Some motorists have found the Park and Ride Scheme attractive, where they pay $70 for a Park and Ride Set which includes a Season Parking Ticket for the month and a $40 Park and Ride ez-link card. Overall, the current utilisation rate is 31.3% of available car parking lots. However, the take-up rate has not been uniform. LTA found that some of the carpark sites under the scheme are fully utilised because of their proximity to the MRT stations while some have hardly any takers. For the popular carparks, there is also a need to look into how the balance should be struck between the car parking needs of the HDB residents and that of visitors which include the Park and Ride users. Then there is also the issue of misuse, where some people with offices in the suburbs use the Park and Ride Scheme as a cheap alternative office

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carpark. In its review, LTA will need to work with the various agencies to study these issues carefully and how to enhance the Park and Ride Scheme to better facilitate inter-modal transfers for motorists.

As for car pooling, there is really nothing stopping motorists from car pooling today if their savings on the costs of driving, such as parking, petrol and ERP, made it sensible to do so. Sir, this is a personal choice, and we will leave it to individuals and informal groups to work out their own arrangements.

On the public transport front, Mrs Teo asked about plans to enhance the connectivity of feeder bus services. We will need to look into both the feeder bus routes as well as the frequency of the services. Sir, the House will recall that LTA will take over the centralised planning of bus routes by 2009; this will ensure that there are more direct feeder services so that commuters can get to MRT stations and bus interchanges in less time.

As for the frequency of feeder bus services, more than 80% of our feeder bus services currently operate at frequencies of 15 minutes or less during the peak hours. However, this can be improved. As part of the Quality of Service Standards (QoS) for basic bus services, the operators will be required to run at least 85% of feeder bus services at headways of not more than 10 minutes during the weekday peak hours by August 2008 or this month. The PTC will raise this standard progressively from 85% to 90% by August next year, to allow time for the bus operators to phase in their procurement of new buses as well as to recruit more bus drivers.

Some other measures to improve our public transport system include the introduction of competition by the LTA to the bus industry through competitive tendering from 2010 as well as

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introducing more Premium Bus Services and competitive bus services along mature MRT lines so as to relieve the train loads. To encourage more people to take public transport, the measures I have mentioned have to work together on both fronts.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak: Sir, I thank Mrs Lim Hwee Hwa for answering the Question. I think as far as car pooling is concerned, I tend to disagree that it should best be left to individual groups to arrange. In the first place, I think we need all measures to solve our congestion problems. Most of us have seen parents sending kids to school with only one child inside the car and there is a long queue going to the school. I am just wondering whether there can be some platform set up, eg, at the Ministry of Education's school level to encourage parents to car pool, especially within the same area, they can send their kids together to school. Likewise for working places or even those residing in the same town, the CDC or the grassroots organisations may encourage such schemes.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua: Sir, as Dr Lim Wee Kiak has very well elaborated, car pooling tends to work better in a localised and customised fashion. Therefore, unless the Government can add value by having national platforms, it will still be far better to allow the informal arrangements to take place.

Mrs Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mr Speaker, I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State whether the Ministry would consider giving priority to the housing estates which are affected by the new ERP gantry as a result of the outer-cordoned concept for their feeder-bus services to be improved at a faster rate because they are truly the ones who are being affected most.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua: Sir, I think the ERP system covers most, if not all, parts of

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Singapore. And it will be difficult to assign a certain priority to certain areas. But, certainly, when LTA does its centralised planning, it will see how best to optimise the feeder service network with the different modes of transport.