Will free travel really force Singaporeans to leave the bed early?

Singapore will soon launch a revolutionary new travel scheme to ease congestion and reward commuters for getting up early. Completely free travel if you finish your journey to a city centre MRT station by 7.45am. As usual in Singapore this imaginative but very simple initiative divides opinion.

The idea itself is sound and wise and if you judge it purely on its merits is hard to criticise. The number of commuters who travel after 7.45 is double those who travel before therefore the before 7.45am has been targeted because it has capacity. MRT and buses are generally less packed then than after 8am at its peak. Diverting some of these people from after 8am to before 7.45 is therefore logical.  

So if you are willing to forsake your lie in and you work in the city centre you will be rewarded. Free travel as long as you finish by 7.45am.  Even if you finish your journey at 7.45-8am you will only be charged 50% of your usual fare which again is a wise move. This new Free Travel scheme will enhance the existing scheme which discounts all fares before 7.45am and will extend it to additional stations.

The government picks up the tab at around $10million for the trial year starting end of June. Not much compared to the billions being spent on the new and existing MRT/Bus infrastructure but if it persuades 10-20% of people to change journeys and therefore makes life better for those who travel after 8am then it will be a small price to pay. We all have to adapt while the MRT network is still being built.

Wisely targeting the CBD where many people start early or whose companies can start early anyway makes sense. If your office is open then why not?

There are additional benefits here too for the work-life balance in Singapore. Coming in early means that people are entitled to leave early too. Your contract should be flexible enough to allow this, if not see your boss/HR manager to make it so. This has the double knock on effect of easing congestion for the afternoon rush hour too. If people are leaving at 4pm or 5pm rather than 6pm or 7pm then congestion on MRT going home will also ease again making life easier and less congested for everyone.

Other benefits include an increase in productivity. People who get in early achieve more and produce more. Why? Because they are not distracted by other people and can focus on their work!

This is probably why employers have also been targeted to help persuade employees to come in early as it benefits them as well as the public transport system. 12 organisations have signed up to work with the government on this. They have agreed everything from flexi working to improving remote working and even introducing showers into offices. All logical and great ideas that benefits the employee and employer as well as fellow commuters in one go. Win-win.

Students and higher education establishments are also being talked to with regards to how they can get involved and benefit from this forward thinking initiative too. I am sure that buses will be next to be targeted as the bus service in Singapore is excellent but there does need to be more frequent ones on busy routes and especially from places like East Coast where there is limited MRT stations. The rumours that all buses go around Aljunied to reach their destination therefore taking longer are completely untrue.

Just for balance and some humour I have collated some of the reasons why anti-PAP Singaporeans are objecting to this new Free Travel scheme as they made me smile, these include:

-          “Singaporeans will ultimately have to pay back the $10m in increased fares” – despite the government giving assurances that this will not happen and for $10m that’s a drop in the ocean in the context of the whole public transport cost anyway

-          “Why isn’t it free travel all day” – kind of defeats the purpose!

-          “This isn’t the answer stopping foreigners coming in is!” Sigh!

-          “Why isn’t it just for seniors” – again defeats the purpose

-          “It will pack the pre-7.45am trains!” You can’t win! Why not suggest people finishing by 6am instead…I am sure people would then complain that trains before 6am would then get full too.

-          “There won’t be enough trains” – there will as there will be more trains on the pre-7.45am targeted routes

-          “All the jobless people in Singapore” (which has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world) “won’t be able to benefit”…..speechless.

-          “Offices don’t open early enough” – well ask your employer to open early.

-          “Electricity bills will go up because people are getting in early!!!”

-          “Foreign workers should do NS first before benefiting from free travel!” I think foreign workers should also have to do NS before going to Sentosa.

-          “There should be free coffee too”…..yes let’s get Starbucks to sponsor this.

-          “Taiwan already does this and it works”…..yes someone put forward this as a reason why Singapore should not do it. It works elsewhere so why would we want to do that?

-          And my personal favourite: ”it will stop Singaporeans having babies!!!!” Yes the fact that people may have to get up early to get free travel means apparently that they will not have time for that early morning child making quickie. Because that strategy has worked so well so far, and you couldn’t possibly have sex at any other time.

There’s just no pleasing some people.