Coming Soon: Travel Smart Journeys and
Travel Smart Info Pack
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has reviewed its Travel Smart Programme to take into account rail network enhancements in recent years and changes to commuter travel patterns. Following its review, LTA will be concluding the Travel Smart Rewards (TSR)[1] programme and will introduce a new initiative called Travel Smart Journeys (TSJ) later this year.
2. Introduced in 2012 under the Travel Smart Programme, TSR aims to re-distribute peak hour travel demand and improve commuter experience by allowing commuters to earn points and rewards when they travel outside the morning peak period. Together with the introduction of lower morning pre-peak rail fares[2] across the entire rail network in December 2017, this has contributed to a 12% increase in commuters travelling during the morning pre-peak period in 2018, significantly larger than overall ridership growth of 2%[3].
3. Since the introduction of TSR, the rail network has expanded with the addition of the Downtown Line and Tuas West Extension. 99 new trains were also added to the North-South Line, East-West Line, North East Line and Circle Line from 2015 to 2019 to provide additional capacity. With these additions and recent efforts to renew and upgrade the network, peak hour loading has shown improvement across all rail lines.
More Targeted Approach to Travel Management
4. From running the TSR, we recognised that our scheme design must evolve and adapt to changing ridership patterns and circumstances to remain effective. This is why the emphasis of the Travel Smart Programme will shift to focus on more localised initiatives, given that network-wide lower morning pre-peak fares has been established. These initiatives will complement each other, and continue to help better distribute peak hour travel load for more comfortable rides and allow a more efficient use of our public transport network.
5. Such a targeted approach will also allow LTA to be more flexible and responsive to changes in ridership patterns along specific stretches of the rail network, another key lesson learnt from our TSR journey thus far. One such localised initiative that LTA will introduce later this year is TSJ, to distribute peak hour travel demand more evenly by incentivising commuters along congested corridors or areas to consider alternative modes or routes. More details on TSJ will be announced in the second half of this year.
6. Current TSR users can continue earning points for trips made on the rail network until 31 May 2019. They can convert their points into cash rewards, or use the points to win more points or cash rewards through the game on the TSR portal until 25 June 2019. Points which are not used by 25 June 2019 will no longer be valid. The Travel Smart Grant, which was established to encourage organisations to implement or trial some Travel Smart initiatives, will also be ceased in conjunction with the TSR programme.
Travel Smart Info Pack Tailored For Residents of New Housing Estates
7. As part of the more targeted approach for the Travel Smart Programme, LTA will introduce Travel Smart Info Packs from later this month for residents who will be moving into new housing estates. Besides travel smart tips, the Info Packs will provide residents with localised information on public transportation and active mobility options in their vicinity. Residents can use this information to plan and improve their commutes from their new homes.
8. For a start, the Travel Smart Info Packs will be distributed to residents in the new HDB projects in Canberra and Sengkang.
[1] Includes the cessation of corporate-tier TSR.
[2] Commuters can enjoy up to 50 cents off their fare when they tap in at any train station islandwide before 7.45am on weekdays, excluding Public Holidays.
[3] Refers to average weekday morning peak ridership growth.
