Many years ago I proposed an "early bird" monthly pass as a way of diverting the heavy morning traffic to an earlier hour. To my surprise, the MTR in 1988 took my proposal seriously, and, without knowing it, when I turned up at the venue to which I was invited for some meeting, I was surprised that the MTR was going to announce an Early Bird Monthly Pass scheme that was supposed to be modeled after my proposal.

I wrote "supposed to" because the actual proposal was far narrower than I had expected. Instead of being applicable for all routes, which was what I had in mind, the MTR introduced route-specific monthly passes. These allowed the pass holder to enjoy the privilege of the pass only on those specific routes. It means that should the owner change his travel plans in any way, even if the time is right, the pass would be useless. The restrictions were so prohibitive that takers were few. As a result, the Early Bird Monthly Pass had a short life. It was abandoned in just about a year.

Of late, the idea of an early bird incentive came up again. This time it came from Secretary of Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung because of the huge number of passengers on MTR services. During the peak hours passengers have to wait for several trains before they can get in, and when they do, they would be packed like sardines in a can.

In order to make the early bird incentive work, not only do we need to take away all the restrictions on routes, but we also have to design the discounts in such a way that passengers are not going to be concentrated just before the time the discounts end. Instead of the monthly pass, I propose an early bird discount to all MTR passengers other than those on the Airport Express. In particular, I propose that those who enter the MTR system before 7 am will get 40 percent off the regular fare. Those who enter the MTR system before 7:30 am will get 20 percent off. This way, there is an incentive for passengers to get in as early as possible. For example, someone who normally gets into the MTR system at, say, 7:10 am, may want to get in just before 7 so he can enjoy 40 percent off, which represents quite a significant saving. Someone who normally enters the MTR system at 7:35 am may enter a few minutes earlier so he can get an extra 10 percent discount. Similarly someone who normally enters the MTR at 7:50 am will likely decide to use the system before 7:45 am so he can get 10 percent off. Some of these passengers actually may decide to use the system before 7 am so he can enjoy the full 40 percent discount!

The proposed system of "tapering discounts" has important advantages. First, for those who value the 40 percent discount, which is certainly most valuable on long journeys, the incentive to enter the MTR system before 7 am will be very strong. These are the passengers whose presence will be felt through the entire long journey by all the other passengers who use the system after he has boarded. The benefits of early entry are clearly the greatest. Second, since the discounts taper off to a mere 10 percent before 7:45 am, we can avoid the scenario of having some passengers getting angry just because someone blocked his way so he was delayed. Third, the tapering discount design spreads out the passengers among the early hours, thereby avoiding heavy congestion just before the termination of discounts.

Apart from an early bird discount, it is also highly desirable to offer early evening discounts in a similar fashion. This will certainly help promote use of the early bird discount, since those who report to work early are also likely to finish their day of work early. Simply by taking advantage of the 40 percent discount by entering the MTR system before 7 am, many commuters will also leave work early. A tapering discount offered for early evening will therefore give double incentive for people to go to work earlier. This will help ease the evening congestion as much as it will ease the morning congestion.

Technologically, to implement such a system of tapering discounts is not difficult and can be accommodated by Octopus cards rather easily. No monthly pass is needed. All that is necessary is to do the promotion so people know about it.

The benefits of the proposed discounts are huge. It effectively raises the efficiency of the MTR and the number of passenger trips served - well ahead of the construction of the new lines that are expected to ease the congestion. It increases the comfort and safety of passengers during peak hours and reduces delays through passengers trying to jam into an already packed train. Finally, the discounts will win the support of passengers and is a great image builder for the MTR Corporation.

The author is director of the Center for Public Policy Studies at Lingnan University.

(HK Edition 03/11/2014 page1)