Head Civil Service and PS (Finance), Mr Lim Siong Guan and Mrs Lim

Distinguished guests

Colleagues

Good evening and a warm welcome to LTA's 8^th Annual Dinner & Dance.

Those of you with school going children will know that this weekend is the start of the school holidays. Normally, this is the time I take a break with my family. This year, the family break will have to be shorter as my presence on this occasion is an important duty as your Chief Executive. I am so glad to see so many of you in this ballroom. I would like to thank those, who have made my transition in LTA a smooth though eventful one.

This has been a busy and eventful year. 7 years of hard work paid off when the North East Line (NEL) commenced operation on 20 June 2003. Earlier in the year, the Sengkang Light Rapid Transit (LRT) got off to a smooth start. The official opening of the NEL and Sengkang LRT last week by DPM Lee was a day of celebration for us. Most importantly, it marked an important achievement for the land transport system in Singapore.

Commuters can now enjoy convenient travel along the north-east corridor to the city. I understand that many you working at the Hampshire Road Office which is next to the new Little India Station have more lunch venues to choose from besides fish head curry at Race Course Road.

LTA's programme to expand the land transport system does not end with the North East Line. The construction of the Punggol LRT system is well on its way to completion next year. We have also started several major projects, such as the Kallang/Paya Lebar Expressway and the Circle Line.

For our customers, we have enhanced our schemes with graduated ERP pricing, and rolled out new e-services like the road tax line online and vehicle inspection type approval system. We are also making good progress in the development of a new Vehicle Registration and Licensing System, which will significantly increase the level of e-services provided by LTA.

For public transport, we have liberalised the taxi industry through the introduction of new taxi operator licences and instituted a monitoring regime to ensure consistently good performance from the taxi companies. Retrofitting works to make the existing MRT network more disabled-friendly are in full steam. We have received resounding support from members of our community who are physically challenged.

The achievements in the past year were made possible through the dedication, hard work and determination of all LTA staff, and for this, I would like to say a big thank you.

The LTA's vision is a world class land transport system for Singapore. With the completion of NEL, we are one step closer to our vision. However, our task is not easy. The 1996 White Paper illustrates the various roles LTA has to play as the builder of rail and roads, regulator of vehicle population and public transport services, as well as manager of traffic systems.

It has been 7 years since the White Paper was published. The targets set out in the White Paper were ambitious, but I am pleased that we have met most of the targets and even exceeded some of them. Let me now highlight some of our achievements.

In 1996, we had 67km of rail. By 2010 when we complete the Circle Line, Singapore will have a rail network of 172km. This exceeds the White Paper's long-term target of 160km.

Besides providing residents in the area with another transport option, the opening of each new rail line also helped to bring new life and bustle to the community. For example, the Woodlands MRT Extension, which was opened in 1996, brought rapid development to the north-western part of Singapore, including shopping centres like Lot 1 and Causeway Point. The Changi Airport Line has also given Singaporeans and our visitors a speedy transport choice to and from Changi Airport. Residents staying in Sengkang can now enjoy seamless transfer between the Sengkang LRT and NEL and a fast ride straight to the city.

If you take the bus often, you would have noticed that many of the bus shelters have been upgraded and fitted with lights to enhance the safety of commuters travelling at night. To protect commuters from rain and shine, we built more than 16 km of sheltered walkways connecting MRT stations, bus stops, overhead bridges and nearby buildings. These improvements in public transport infrastructure provide convenience and comfort for commuters.

Our strategy to integrate land use, town and transport planning has been implemented. The most recent example is the Sengkang Transport Hub, which has brought homes, shops, offices as well as a bus interchange, LRT station and MRT station under one roof. Buses are located near the MRT station entrances, and commuters can transfer seamlessly between different MRT and LRT lines without having to tap in and out of faregates. In fact, they can live, eat, shop and tap in and out all under one roof.

To provide motorists with a wider choice of routes, help distribute and speed up traffic flows, our road capacity has increased by more than 400 lane-km or 6% since 1996. To complement this, we have also adopted advanced traffic management systems to maximise our road network capacity.

EMAS tow trucks are on stand-by to remove any vehicle stalled on expressways within 15 minutes so as to minimise impact to traffic. With the implementation of intelligent traffic systems such as EMAS and GLIDE, traffic is smoother thus allowing motorists to travel with greater ease. The improvement in traffic speeds have led to an estimated time savings of $40 million a year for road users.

Today, motorists also enjoy real time traffic information, which was not available in 1996. They can obtain the latest traffic information through TrafficWatch on radio, the EMAS message boards on expressways and the LTA traffic.smart web site.

We have implemented automated vehicle usage schemes to keep our roads free-flowing, such as the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) System in 1998 and the Automated Vehicle Entry Permit and Toll Systems in 2001. We are proud of our ERP system which has operated very reliably. The system has been effective in relieving road congestions. Over the years, we have also fine-tune the system by regularly reviewing ERP charges according to the traffic conditions and introducing shoulder pricing to ease congestions at ERP gantries. While there will be many motorists who would complain about the ERP charges, a lesser known fact is that the ERP system is fairer. Overall, motorists have in fact saved 20% in road pricing charges compared to the manual Area Licensing System. It is also more effective as we now have a larger vehicle population.

The efforts of LTA in the past 7 years have improved the standard of commute in Singapore, but has our land transport system achieved world class standard We recently conducted a Public Opinion Survey targeted at the general public and foreigners living in Singapore. On the whole, we received outstanding ratings for many of our transport attributes from foreigners. They consistently ranked Singapore ahead of other cities like London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The survey also showed that 70% of the Singaporean public feels that our land transport system is already world class and 83% feels that our transport system is efficient. These are strong affirmations of the quality of our land transport system.

However, the survey also showed that the public's expectation of our land transportation system has risen with lower ratings for indicators like value of money and the land transportation system meets my expectation.

The survey results have certainly provided us with food for thought. Although LTA has done many good things for Singaporeans, not all of them have been translated into satisfaction for our customers. Of course, we must be realistic how much we can change public opinion as LTA is associated with unpopular policies such as ERP charges, COEs and bus rationalisation. More people now think that we issue traffic fines though this is not an LTA function but the Traffic Police's. Nevertheless, we can improve. While we have a proactive approach to community relations and good relations with the grassroots, our primary focus has been to deliver the products and systems we promised. Perhaps, it is now time for us to invest more time and effort in consulting the public on some of our projects and policies, to ensure that what we are providing would indeed meet their needs.

A good transport system should not just address the mobility needs of the people, but also adapt to the needs of a changing environment. LTA has been prudent in investing public funds for transportation projects in the past. With the changed environment, it is now even more critical to prioritise the use of scarce resources to ensure that money spent reaps maximum benefits for the public. To do this, we must be in close touch with our commuters and understand what they really need and want. We must be prepared to consult and hear them out. But we must be mindful that our population have many different needs and expectations. So while we consult and listen to public views, we must not be paralysed by the diversity of the responses we receive. We must exercise our professional expertise and decide how to strike a balance between the divergent needs of the public and have the will to implement unpopular policies that are vital to the well being of the economy.

LTA is now 8 years old. The next few years will be more challenging. It is the right time for us to take a hard look at our vision and mission to see if we can make them more relevant. We should also review our long term strategies with inputs from the public and from our various stakeholders. For us to succeed, the issue is no longer so simple as to provide a world class land transport system as defined by LTA.

Tonight, we celebrate our achievements of the last 8 years. Indeed, these are wonderful achievements made possible by a team which is dedicated, hard working and motivated. I am privileged to be given the opportunity to serve this team. This same team can definitely meet the challenges of getting more for less and to provide Singapore with a cost-effective and efficient land transportation system with choices for the different needs of our commuters.

Thank you and I wish you all an enjoyable evening.

Click here for more details of Public Opinion Survey.

Attachments for Annex A (Public Opinion Survey)

1. Survey Findings - General Public

2. Survey Findings - Foreigners

3. Profile of General Public and Foreigners