Transcript of Acting Minister Jeffrey Siow’s Media Doorstop Interview on Free Morning Off-Peak Rail Travel in Northeast Region

1.     Happy to see all of you in Punggol again today. As DPM said, the last time I was in Punggol was just a month ago, when we launched our autonomous vehicles. He talked about how the North East Line is the most heavily-used line on our MRT network, and that is the reason why last week, when I was at Choa Chu Kang Bus interchange, I announced five new express bus services in the northeast corridor, going from Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol to the city. This would be on top of the existing five that were already part of the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme that we launched since a year ago.

2.     Buses are very important to get residents from where they are living to where they want to go. In terms of capacity, they are in a marginal position. If I add up all the capacity of all the City Direct Services, or 10 of them, actually they add up to one train load only. We do need to do a bit more to relieve the crowding on the North East Line as well. 

3.     As you all know, we already have a discount scheme –if you travel before 7:45am in the morning on any part of the MRT network, you get a 50-cent discount off your train fares. That has worked quite well, so DPM suggested that we can enhance that further and look at whether we can do free off-peak travel. I think it is a good idea, because when we did that 12 years ago, that period we achieved a 7% shift off the peak hour. And if we can achieve a similar shift this time, we will be able to provide a more comfortable commuting experience for most of the North East Line commuters.

4.     I have thought about it, and I agree with DPM that we will implement free morning off-peak rail travel. When you travel before 7.30am at designated stations on the North East Line, you will travel for free. On top of that, we will also introduce free post-peak travel. Between 9.00am to 9.45am, if you tap-in at designated stations, you will also travel for free. That is not all. If you take a feeder bus to the MRT, you will be able to get 80% off your bus fare, but you will have to sign up for LTA’s Travel Smart Journeys programme. I will leave LTA to announce the details of how you can sign-up, but the sign-ups will be easy.

5.     This is a very important thing to do for us. I think it really helps with the commuter experience, but there is also a reason why the Government has decided to do this. The reason is because we want to improve the overall resilience of the train network. If you are in London or Tokyo, or a city with a mature rail network, if there is a disruption, most passengers can get on to another part of the network because they can change trains at the interchange stations. Those are for cities with mature train networks. In Singapore, we are still building up our train network. It is not quite as connected as we will eventually have it, and there are some parts of our train network, for example the North East Line – from Kovan station upwards, where it is not connected to any other train line at the moment. If there is a disruption, it is a bit harder to manage. We are not be able to get on to another part of the train network, and buses, as I mentioned earlier, the capacity is not quite enough. It will be the case until the Cross Island Line is completed in about five years’ time, where it will connect to Punggol and Hougang stations, giving train commuters an alternative option. I think it is the right thing to do to shave the peak off the peak commuter load and manage the loading that way for the next few years. 

6.     In summary, if your schedule allows, we would like to encourage commuters to travel either before the peak hour or after the peak hour. The Government is putting in money to support this programme, to encourage commuters to travel off-peak for the busier stretches of our rail network. I also want to encourage employers as well – if you can have flexible working arrangements and hours for commuters, I think it will really help us make sure that the programme is a success.