Although the market shares for bus were higher, there was a
steady increase in demand for MRT rail service. Accordingly
to the household transport interview survey conducted from
1997 till 2008 [12], the demand for MRT rail service had
increased from only 19% in 1997 to 31% in 2008.
Furthermore, between the two modes of public transport, the
survey found that the MRT rail service was a better alternative
mode that could compete with the car on speed for long urban
trips. As such, the MRT rail network is an important mode of
public transport where the Singapore government would
continue to invest in it to achieve the goals set in the
Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) 2008 Transport
Master Plan to ―make public transport a choice mode‖[11].
B. MRT Rail Service
The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) rail system was built in
mid-1980s with its first segment opened in 1987. Since then, a
number of expansion works were done on the MRT network.
Currently the MRT network has 102 MRT stations and 21
Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations, which are localized rail
systems acting as feeder services to the MRT network. There
are 4 main operating service lines and covering an estimated
149 km [13]. A number of expansion works were also in
progress where new train service lines and train stations will
be built to increase its coverage to 278 km by 2020.
With the number of expansion works and increasing of
service lines, it is important for Singapore urban transport
planners to have a better understanding of the local public
train commuters travel behaviors in order structure better
policies and construct expansions that serve the commuters
better.