Government indecisive on off-peak free train rides

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The government has not made up its mind on whether to offer free train travel during the shoulder-peak periods.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said this in a recording of Channel NewsAsia programme "Ask Minister".

He added that there has been divergent feedback on the issue.

Mr Lui said: "There is a group that is very keen for us to offer free travel. And they think that it is a way to show that the government is truly committed to doing all that is possible to ease the congestion.

"But there is also a significant group that has been cautioning me against offering free travel...the concern is that it may well shift too many commuters to the earlier hours, (resulting in) a new peak of commuters."

Mr Lui said the idea is to improve the public transportation network so that there is less of a need to own cars.

He said regardless of the mode of commute, "we want to try to make it as fair as possible for all commuters so that the road space, limited though it is, is appropriately shared between all these different commuters."