SINGAPORE: Land Transport Authority is to extend its free pre-peak metro travel scheme by one year to June 23 2015. Passengers who end their journey at 18 central metro stations before 07.45 on weekdays get free travel, while those exiting between 07.45 and 08.00 get a discount.
About 7% of commuters have shifted their travel out of the morning peak since the introduction of free travel in last June. This has resulted in a more even distribution of ridership, with the ratio of peak (08.00–09.00) to pre-peak (07.00–8.00) travel falling from 2·7 to 2·1.
An LTA survey found most commuters who changed times did so because of the free travel. Two out of three of those who had not shifted said this was because they do not have flexible work arrangements, and so LTA is to intensify efforts to encourage organisations to implement flexible working arrangements.
