The two famous schemes for incentivising off-peak travel on public transport – free pre-peak travel and off-peak pass trials – have been extended until the end of 2017 in Singapore. This decision has been taken as the Public Transport Council (PTC) is reviewing these schemes, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced today.
In a press statement, MOT said, “The free pre-peak travel and off-peak pass trials were supposed to end on June 30 and July 4 this year, respectively. They were first introduced in 2013 and 2015 to incentivise off-peak travel on public transport.”
Under the free pre-peak travel scheme, commuters who end their journey before 7.45am on weekdays at 18 designated MRT stations in the city area enjoy free travel on the rail network. Those who exit between 7.45am to 8am get a discount of up to SGD0.50 off their train fare.
The 18 designated stations are Bayfront, Bras Basah, Bugis, Chinatown, City Hall, Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut, Downtown, Esplanade, Lavender, Marina Bay, Orchard, Outram Park, Promenade, Raffles Place, Somerset, Tanjong Pagar and Telok Ayer.
Under the off-peak pass travel scheme, commuters are allowed unlimited rides on the public transport network every day except during peak hours on weekdays. Monthly passes for adult Singapore citizens and permanent residents are at SGD80, while those for people with disabilities and senior citizens are at SGD40.
Besides these two schemes, the Transport Ministry has also undertaken several other measures to enhance public transport capacity such as the addition of new MRT lines, trains and buses have also been implemented.
It also made the announcement that the Downtown Line, which adds 42km to the MRT network, will open fully later this year. Re-signalling of the North-South Line and the East-West Line will also be complete in 2017 and 2018, respectively, enabling up to 20 per cent more trains to run during peak periods if necessary, MOT said.
Further, 112 trains have been added to the MRT network and 29 train-cars to the LRT network since 2011, with another 22 new trains to be introduced by 2019, and 1,000 buses will have been put onto the roads since 2012 by this year, the ministry added.