Uber users complain about higher prices of rides during MRT breakdown

Uber users took to Twitter to complain about having to pay up to five times the normal amount for a ride during the MRT breakdown on Tuesday night (July 7).

One even claimed that the price of a ride jumped from $20 to $100.

Uber later tweeted that it had "disabled surge to help commuters get home easily".

Its spokesman told The New Paper: "Uber uses dynamic pricing to ensure reliability for riders during times of peak demand. This is an automatic algorithm that comes into effect when the demand outweighs supply, to help incentivise more drivers to come on the road.

"As soon as we were made aware that people were stranded because of the situation with the MRT, we turned off the dynamic pricing feature to help get more commuters in Singapore moving."

An Uber driver who was out last night ferrying passengers, said he received an SMS from Uber saying that it would disable the pricing surge, but would compensate the drivers during this period.

The driver, who wanted to be known only as Mr Lim, added: "I picked a woman from Raffles City to Tampines and she said she was so desperate that shewould have paid double just to get home."

Train services along the North-South and East-West lines (NSEWL) came to a halt due to a traction power fault on Tuesday evening.

SMRT advised commuters to avoid the NSEWL and take the free bus services that it had provided or other unaffected train services as it rectified the problem.

Related report:

Traction power fault halts train services along the North-South and East-West lines