Singapore MRT commuters to get up to 80 per cent fare discounts for avoiding morning rush hour from 2025

From next year, commuters in Singapore will get a hefty discount on their public transport fares if they avoid the morning rush hour, as the government is ready with a plan to ease crowding on buses and trains.

Quoting Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat on this, a report by The Straits Times said that commuters “who shift their travel schedules”, so that they do not join the rush-hour crowd, would get a strong incentive — fare discounts up to 80 per cent. This was meant to “better manage peak-hour crowding on buses and trains, especially in north-east Singapore”, reported the publication.

ST said that this financial incentive to nudge some people towards revising their commute schedule was “part of a planned refresh of the Travel Smart Journeys scheme”.

This scheme already covered buses and now that coverage would be expanded; in addition, the scheme would cover trains in Singapore from 2025.

During his interview with the media, the transport minister also said that four new City Direct bus services — 675, 676, 677, and 678 — would start from January 2, 2025, and north-east residents could use these new services to reach the Central Business District during peak hours.

The ST report said that with regard to the Singapore rail network, the Travel Smart Journeys scheme would start by focusing on railway rides “beginning from the Punggol, Sengkang, Buangkok and Hougang MRT stations on the North East Line (NEL), and the Punggol and Sengkang LRT stations”.

Under this scheme, NEL passengers would get incentives for shifting their commute to a time period before or after peak hours. At present, fare discount is given for train rides starting before 7.45am.

In its refreshed version, the Travel Smart Journeys scheme would offer “more impactful fare discounts, at up to 80 per cent” for commuters, said ST. Earlier, commuters received points worth SGD 1.50 per trip, if they chose to use any of the seven eligible express bus services between 7am and 9am, thus taking some passenger load off the NEL. Points thus accumulated could be redeemed for travel credits.

Giving some details of the refreshed scheme to reporters, the Singapore minister said in his recent interview that these fare discounts would be complemented by other measures to reduce the NEL passenger load — the line had an average daily ridership of 588,000 in the first half of 2024, only slightly less than the 601,000 daily trips in 2019.

Alongside introducing four new City Direct bus services, the Singapore Transport Ministry has also revamped five existing City Direct services. The existing services have got additional capacity or route extension so that they can serve more commuters from Punggol, Sengkang, Buangkok, and Hougang to the city.

As per the ST report, the minister said that it was important for the government to ensure that “adequate capacity, through both the MRT and buses” was created for commuters in the north-east of Singapore, because of the new developments coming up in the area.