Rationale for Stopping Park and Ride Scheme

Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Transport if he can explain the rationale for stopping the Park and Ride Scheme and what are the alternatives available to motorists using this scheme.

The objective of the Park and Ride scheme is to reduce traffic congestion in the central business district (CBD) by encouraging motorists to switch to public transport just before entering the CBD. It was introduced long ago in 1975, before our Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system was built, and when the public transport network was also much less extensive. Today, many commuters are able to take the MRT and buses directly to the city from their homes which, therefore, makes the Park and Ride Scheme much less useful.

Indeed, over the past few years, the take-up rate for the scheme has been consistently low, very low. There are fewer than 2,000 regular users, most of whom do not take public transport after parking their cars. This suggests that a good number of motorists are using the Park and Ride scheme as cheap, subsidised destination parking. This defeats the purpose of the scheme.

Motorists who wish to drive for a part of their journey before switching to public transport can still park their cars at any car park near public transport. It will still be cheaper than parking in the CBD, even without the subsidy from the Park and Ride scheme. Motorists who park at the Sports Hub or at Kallang, for example, and take public transport, could see savings of up to a few hundred dollars monthly, as they do not have to pay the much more expensive season parking in the CBD nor Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges. There is no need for taxpayers to provide further subsidies.

I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. I noted that half of the regular users of the Park and Ride scheme do not take public transport after parking their cars. But there still remains about a thousand users who will still park their cars and take public transport. Is it easier to maybe enforce the action against abusers rather than you let another thousand people lose their benefits?

On top of that, we also noted that, as the Minister said, Kallang carpark and the Sports Hub have many parking lots and are very much under-utilised. Could we not have a more aggressive scheme to encourage people to park their cars there and take public transport to the CBD area, or is the Public-Private Partnership arrangement with the Sports Hub hindering such an arrangement to encourage more people to park their cars at the Kallang carpark?

I think the number of actual users of the scheme, numbers by the hundreds, should be seen against the daily commuter traffic of more than two million, and whether Kallang or whichever car parks, where motorists can still park and ride. Many motorists that I know of, including myself, do park and ride, except that we park and we pay for the car park, without having to ask for more subsidies because there are already significant savings, as I said, of a few hundred dollars per month by parking at the fringe rather than going into the CBD and trying to look for a car park.