Good news should always be shared like free candy and ice cream. In this case, the news is simply fantastic.

Right now, there’s a trial run to push commuters to use the MRT to be used more during off-peak hours.

The carrot in the deal?

Discounted fares, and in some places, free rides.

Yes, you don’t have to spend a single cent! Sure, the trial run is no new news here, but now there’s actually talks about making it PERMANENT!

There was a blog post recently (19 Oct) by PTC chairman Richard Magnus, which spoke about the council being asked by the Ministry of Transport if these staggered fares could be made a permanent thing.

The transport council is likely to send an announcement out pretty soon, with its recommendations by the end of 2017, as well as the annual review on our public transport fares (please, please don’t increase!).

About the Free-Peak Travel

Back in 2013, the move was made to commuters who rode from certain stations within the Central Business District. It involved providing the commuters with either discounted or free rail transport which was in the morning and before peak hours then.

If you need me to be Captain Obvious, here’s why: during peak hours, everyone’s going to work, so it gets very congested in the CBD.

Then came the monthly off-peak pass program in 2015, which is another sweet deal, honestly. You’d get to travel an unlimited number of times on both basic buses and the rail system at certain off-peak times.

Both schemes have been renewed a number of times since then, with the latest renewal being at last June to the end of 2017.

According to data collected, there’s been positive signs that the travel patterns of our commuters are now evolving, as their travel patterns have realigned based on the free-peak travel feature.

Based on LTA’s figures, more than 65,000 people are now reaping the rewards of the free/discounted travel scheme – they exit any one of the 18 city stations by no later than 8am during weekdays.

On top of that, more than 15,000 commuters have changed gears from peak to off-peak commuting everyday – that’s a significant sum, as it can fit 10 trains full of passengers!

As far as the sales of off-peak passes go, since the trial run began in July 2015, an average of at least 13,000 off-peak passes are sold to the masses every single month.

In other words, people seem to be willing to travel less during peak hours just to save some money.

Not bad huh?

The Hurdles of Maintaining the Scheme

In his blog post, Mr Magnus spoke about how the same kind of move was done in London and in Sydney, and was met with a certain level of success.

The PTC council is looking at the travel patterns to see how a tiered fare system could smoothen out the demands for transport.

Also, the Government has placed some gigantic investments in its public transport, and that the council can’t ignore the rising costs that were going to come in the future.

Just think of this as ERP: during peak hours, ERPs operate to encourage people to use the toll roads during peak hours. Pretty sure that’s working, right?

Hmmm… All I can think about now is that there’s free off-peak MRT transport prices, and I don’t mind waking up an extra hour early to go to work. Or if my boss approves, an extra hour late to go to work.

How about you leh?

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

Read Also

• You Might Soon Take the MRT Without Having To Tap Your Card
• An MRT Breakdown Support FB Page is Set Up That Provides Crowdsourced Real-time Updates
• Transport Minister Says S’pore MRT Reliability Will Be Much Better in 2019

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