Plans for Zero Emissions Transport System in Jurong Innovation District and Existing Jurong Industrial Areas

The following question stood in the name of Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong –

To ask the Minister for Transport what are the plans for a zero-emissions transportation system in the new Jurong Innovation District and the existing Jurong industrial areas.

Mr Deputy Speaker, sustainable transport is a key pillar of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Domestic land transport accounts for approximately 15% of Singapore's total carbon emissions. We have thus embarked on a major effort to reduce the net carbon emissions of the land transport sector.

First, we will sustain our efforts to make Walk-Cycle-Ride the preferred way to get around Singapore. This includes commuting via buses and trains, which are the cleanest and most sustainable forms of public transport. It also includes shared transport services, such as taxis, private hire cars, car sharing, as well as active modes, such as walking and cycling.

We have set ambitious national targets: increasing the peak-period mass public transport modal share from 64% today to 75% by 2030 and 90% of all peak-period journeys to be made by Walk-Cycle-Ride modes by 2040. To support these goals, we will continue to invest in expanding and renewing our rail and cycling networks and take an integrated planning approach to promote Walk-Cycle-Ride.

In addition to the existing East-West Line that serves the Jurong industrial estate area, the upcoming Jurong Region Line (JRL) will also serve both the Jurong Innovation District (JID) and the Jurong industrial estate area. The rail network will also be complemented by a comprehensive public bus network and it will be supported by integrated transport hubs to encourage greater use of public transport. Further, JID will also be a car-lite district, with tighter vehicle parking provision norms of 50% of the usual standards. An 11-kilometre-long Sky Corridor will also seamlessly connect pedestrians and commuters from the nearby JRL stations to all other destinations in the vicinity via walking and cycling without having to interact with vehicles at ground level.

Second, we will substantially reduce emissions from our vehicle population. We envisage all vehicles to run on cleaner energy by 2040. Since 2020, all new public bus purchases have been fully electric or hybrid models. Additionally, all new bus infrastructure, such as depots and interchanges, will be designed and built to support these cleaner energy buses. For private cars and motorcycles, growth rates have been capped at zero since 2018. To encourage the take-up of cleaner vehicles, we have a suite of measures to incentivise the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and we will be significantly expanding public EV charging infrastructure. JID and the Jurong industrial estate area are part of the Jurong West and Tengah towns, which are designed and designated to be EV-ready towns. Come 2025, residents and commuters in these towns can look forward to charging points in every HDB carpark.

Finally, we will expand green features in public transport infrastructure where practicable. For instance, the JRL's Tengah Depot will integrate solar panels, with the electricity generated helping to offset the power consumption of both the depot and the JRL.

I thank the Minister for the reply and sharing on EVs. Could I ask: I know we are making a lot of progress on EV buses and EV cars, but could we make similar progress on EV motorcycles as well? And I think that is one of the areas that is quite lacking here in Singapore.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member for his question. In fact, there is another Parliamentary Question later on about EV adoption rates and we can go into it in more detail then. But the short answer is, yes, we are looking at also what can be done in terms of EV motorcycles. Some of the ideas being explored include swappable batteries and so on. This, again, is an area of work that is being undertaken in consultation with the industry.