Bigger rebates for off-peak travel in North-east from Jan 2

Public transport users in north-eastern Singapore will get heftier rebates on their fares on weekday mornings when they take selected express bus services instead of the train from Jan 2.

And for the first time, the rebates, which are up to 80 per cent of the trip fare, will apply to train journeys too. These apply when eligible rail passengers from the north-east shift their morning commutes to avoid the most crowded period between 7.15am and 8.45am.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Dec 20 that the initiative is aimed at encouraging passengers to avoid busier segments of the MRT network during the morning rush.

It is an enhancement of the Travel Smart Journeys (TSJ) programme, which awards points to eligible participants. These points can be redeemed as electronic transport vouchers or as credit for those using bank cards to pay for public transport.

To help ease the load on the congested North East Line (NEL), the programme was launched in 2020 as a trial and expanded in 2023.

To facilitate the upcoming upgrades, it was temporarily suspended on Nov 25. Before the suspension, there were about 21,000 eligible participants in the scheme.

When it restarts on Jan 2, the TSJ incentive scheme will cover four more express bus services than before, bringing the total up to 11, LTA said. These additional express routes are City Direct Services (CDS) 675, 676, 677, and 678, which will all begin operations from Jan 2.

The TSJ programme will also cover CDS 660M, a variant of the existing CDS 660 express route.

All the express bus services covered by the scheme connect north-east Singapore to major employment centres in the Central Business District, MacPherson and Paya Lebar.

In the first half of 2024, the NEL had an average daily ridership of 588,000 passenger trips, 2.2 per cent shy of the 601,000 daily trips made on the line in 2019.

Under the scheme’s earlier format, participants who used eligible express bus services between 7am and 9am were awarded points worth $1.50 per trip.

From Jan 2, this will increase to 80 per cent of the trip fare.

So, in the case of an adult passenger who chooses to take CDS 666 instead of the train from Damai LRT station to Promenade MRT station, they will get an effective fare discount of $2.37 under the upgraded scheme.

The biggest change will be the addition of train journeys to the programme, so passengers who start their commutes from Punggol Coast, Punggol, Sengkang, Buangkok and Hougang MRT stations are eligible for discounts too.

Depending on when they travel, eligible commuters will either get a 40 per cent or 80 per cent rebate on their train fares.

This is on top of an existing discount of up to 50 cents that is given to those who tap in at MRT stations islandwide before 7.45am on weekdays.

To illustrate, an adult train passenger who taps in at Sengkang MRT station on a weekday morning and exits at Raffles Place station would normally pay $1.93 in fares.

With the new incentive, if they make the same MRT journey before 7.15am, they will get an upfront discount of 50 cents plus 114 TSJ points, which is equivalent to $1.14 or 80 per cent of the trip fare after the 50-cent discount.

If the same passenger taps in after 7.15am but before 7.45am, they will still get an upfront discount of 50 cents, but no points.

If they make the journey between 9am and 9.30am, there is no upfront fare discount, but they will receive 154 points (80 per cent of $1.93), effectively bringing the fare down to 39 cents.

For the periods between 8.45am and 9am, and between 9.30am and 9.45am, the points received will be 40 per cent of the trip fare, which, in this example, are 77 points. Those who travel after 9.45am will pay the regular full fare.

To be eligible for the TSJ incentives, passengers must have tapped in at any NEL station between Punggol Coast and Hougang, or any station along the Punggol and Sengkang LRT lines, between 7.15am and 8.45am on at least six working weekdays in the past 30 calendar days.

Active participants of the previous iteration of the TSJ programme will be automatically enrolled in the upgraded scheme from Jan 2.

Meanwhile, inactive users, which are those who have not earned any TSJ points in the last six months, will receive an e-mail invitation to re-register, but they will need to be eligible to earn points.

For those not on the scheme yet, they will need to register for it using the SimplyGo app and add a travel card to their SimplyGo account.

They will then need to nominate a travel card that will be used to check their eligibility, which will be determined within 72 hours, LTA said.

Once enrolled, participants will be able to see how many points they have earned through a revamped dashboard within the SimplyGo app.

The accumulated points can then be redeemed in blocks of 500, with the credit going towards the travel card of the passenger’s choosing.

While the focus is now on the north-eastern region, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat had left the door open for the TSJ programme to be expanded to other rail lines in future during a media interview in early December.

Mr Chee said then that the goal is to distribute peak demand on buses and MRT to help manage crowding and the capacity needed. “If we can have some costs savings or cost avoidance, we think it would be good if we can share some of that with our commuters,” he added.