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[TD="width: 452, colspan: 2"]Published August 6, 2011
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[TD="width: 452, colspan: 2"]SMRT raises off-peak discount and duration
By NISHA RAMCHANDANI
TO ease loads on its trains during morning peak hours, SMRT is giving its morning off-peak travel discount scheme a boost from Oct 8. Commuters who exit from selected stations within the city area during those designated hours will receive a discount of 30 cents. SMRT currently offers a 10-cent discount to adults and senior citizens who alight at the designated stations before 7.30 am from Monday to Saturday (excluding public holidays). To improve the discount scheme, the cut-off time will also be extended to 7.45 am.
In addition, SMRT will be working with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on joint trials that will look at managing demand by incentivising commuters to avoid travelling during peak periods. 'We understand the difficulties that commuters face today, in particular more crowding arising from the increase in ridership. So we have been rolling out initiatives, such as adding more trains to increase frequencies, to improve our commuters' experience,' said SMRT president & CEO Saw Phaik Hwa. 'We will continue to look further into innovative ways to contain our operating cost, boost capacity and invest further in our systems, for our commuters' benefit.'
Collectively, the beefed-up discount scheme and the travel demand management scheme is expected to cost SMRT some $5 million. This was revealed yesterday by the Public Transport Council (PTC), which announced an overall net public transport fare increase of one per cent for this year starting Oct 8.
The PTC found that the operators' return on total assets (ROTA) in 2010 was comparable to other companies with similar industry structures and risk profiles. SBS Transit's bus and rail ROTA has fallen from 9.3 per cent in 2009 to 7.8 per cent in 2010, while SMRT's bus and rail ROTA has decreased from 12 per cent in 2009 to 11.2 per cent in 2010.
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[TD="width: 452, colspan: 2"]Published August 6, 2011

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[TR]
[TD="width: 452, colspan: 2"]SMRT raises off-peak discount and duration
By NISHA RAMCHANDANI
TO ease loads on its trains during morning peak hours, SMRT is giving its morning off-peak travel discount scheme a boost from Oct 8. Commuters who exit from selected stations within the city area during those designated hours will receive a discount of 30 cents. SMRT currently offers a 10-cent discount to adults and senior citizens who alight at the designated stations before 7.30 am from Monday to Saturday (excluding public holidays). To improve the discount scheme, the cut-off time will also be extended to 7.45 am.
In addition, SMRT will be working with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on joint trials that will look at managing demand by incentivising commuters to avoid travelling during peak periods. 'We understand the difficulties that commuters face today, in particular more crowding arising from the increase in ridership. So we have been rolling out initiatives, such as adding more trains to increase frequencies, to improve our commuters' experience,' said SMRT president & CEO Saw Phaik Hwa. 'We will continue to look further into innovative ways to contain our operating cost, boost capacity and invest further in our systems, for our commuters' benefit.'
Collectively, the beefed-up discount scheme and the travel demand management scheme is expected to cost SMRT some $5 million. This was revealed yesterday by the Public Transport Council (PTC), which announced an overall net public transport fare increase of one per cent for this year starting Oct 8.
The PTC found that the operators' return on total assets (ROTA) in 2010 was comparable to other companies with similar industry structures and risk profiles. SBS Transit's bus and rail ROTA has fallen from 9.3 per cent in 2009 to 7.8 per cent in 2010, while SMRT's bus and rail ROTA has decreased from 12 per cent in 2009 to 11.2 per cent in 2010.
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