Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.     Thank you for joining me. This is the fourth year that we are organising a morning workout as part of the Travel Smart programme. I am very happy to see that this year, apart from our Travel Smart partners, we also have many members of the public joining us for the workout.

Travel Smart Network

2.     Since the launch of the Travel Smart Network in 2014, the family of Travel Smart companies has grown considerably. From the 12 pilot companies in our early days, we now have more than 100 companies with over 240,000 employees in the network. They come from a wide range of sectors from finance and manufacturing, to logistics and services.

3.     Travel Smart is about getting people to work efficiently. But it is also about helping people to work more flexibly, so that they can meet their personal and family commitments, and at the same time fulfil their job requirements. For this to happen, the support of employers is essential.

4.     Enlightened employers see the benefits not just for their staff but for business. Take for example, Santa Fe, a logistics company. When the company decided to relocate their office last year, they saw a good opportunity to redesign their new office with features that would allow their employees to travel off-peak. Instead of having employees wait for the office to be manually unlocked at 8am, Santa Fe installed a card access system which uses their employees’ ez-link cards for entry and exit. This allowed employees to start and end work earlier.

5.     Sante Fe went one step further to install shower facilities with personal lockers. As a company, Santa Fe does not have to do this. But it has chosen to promote a healthier lifestyle and its employees are now more willing to cycle to work or walk to office from the MRT station. I am glad it has taken this enlightened approach; I am sure Sante Fe employees appreciate it too.

#wetravelsmart Challenge & Travel Smart Rewards

6.     In January this year, LTA organised a #wetravelsmart competition for companies in the Travel Smart Network to encourage their employees to sign up for Travel Smart Rewards. Through this programme, commuters who make trips just before or after the morning peak hours earn more credits, which can then be exchanged for cash. I am happy to announce the two organisations with the highest number of active users of the Corporate-Tier Travel Smart Rewards. They are:

• Ubisoft (among companies with 500 or less employees); and
• Rajah & Tann (among companies with more than 500 employees).

7.     As a whole, close to 270,000 commuters have now signed up for the Travel Smart Rewards and are benefiting from the scheme. I know that many of you here are already on board Travel Smart Rewards, and I hope you can encourage more of your friends, families and colleagues to join this fun and rewarding programme.

Free Pre-Peak Travel

8.     To encourage more off-peak travel, LTA launched the Free Pre-Peak Travel scheme in 2013, where commuters who exit at 18 designated city stations before 7:45am get to travel for free. In the last two years, this programme has seen a sustained shift of 7% of commuters out of the morning peak. On average, more than 65,000 commuters benefit from Free Pre-Peak Travel daily.

9.     More importantly, the ridership in the pre-peak period has grown at around the same pace as ridership in the peak period. This means a more even distribution of passengers even as overall ridership has grown.

10.     We will therefore extend Free Pre-Peak Travel for another year till June 2017.

Off-Peak Pass

11.     Last year, the Government also introduced the monthly Off-Peak Pass, which allows unlimited travel on rail and basic bus services during designated off-peak hours. Today, about 13,000 commuters each month take advantage of the scheme. There’s scope for more commuters to benefit and LTA will promote it more actively.

Conclusion

12.     Through the Travel Smart initiatives, commuters who are able and willing to shift their travel patterns enjoy monetary benefits and more comfortable public transport journeys.

13.     Take Charlene for instance. She is a tax consultant with Deloitte Singapore, a company in the Travel Smart Network. Charlene now wakes up an hour earlier every morning to travel to her office in Shenton Way. She benefits from both Travel Smart Rewards and Free Pre-Peak Travel. More importantly, travelling pre-peak has allowed her to free up time before and after work for her yoga classes and to spend more quality time with her friends and family.

14.     We hope that more companies will come aboard the Travel Smart Network, for the benefit of their employees and their own businesses.