CHINATOWN businesses hit by falling customer traffic will know by October if adjustments can be made to the timings or charges for the new road tolls in the area.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will bring its quarterly review forward by a month in response to feedback that takings by businesses in the area have dived by up to half since five gantries went live last month.

'The ERP changes will not be able to address any underlying weakness in consumer demand because that is something that is felt throughout the whole of Singapore and not just in Chinatown.' Senior Minister of State for Transport Lim Hwee Hua What it costs Singapore River Line cordon: Gantries are at Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road, South Bridge Road and two at Fullerton Road. Mon to Fri: 6pm to 7.30pm: $2 7.30pm to 8pm: $1 Sat: Not operational Bugis-Marina Centre cordon: Consists of the gantries at Eu Tong Sen Street, Fullerton Road (towards Suntec City), and existing CBD gantries north of the Singapore River Line. Sat: 12.30pm to 8.30pm: $1

Under review will be the timings for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) - now levied between 6pm and 8pm - and the charges of up to $2.

Motorists' driving patterns would have stabilised within three months, during which the LTA would have gathered enough data on the volume and speed of traffic, occupancy levels of carparks in the area and retail sales figures.

Where traffic speed is concerned, the LTA has noted 'significant improvements' since the new gantries went up. Average speeds are up by between 5 and 30 per cent along areas affected by the Singapore River Line cordon, it said yesterday.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, said after meeting Chinatown businessmen yesterday: 'If traffic conditions warrant it, LTA will announce the review results in the later part of September and adjust the ERP rates from early October.'

She had just spent about an hour with representatives of Chinatown business associations at the Kreta Ayer Community Club yesterday.

Mrs Lim told reporters after the closed- door meeting that the businesses accepted that the gantries, set up to reduce traffic cutting through the city, would help ease congestion in the area.

The ERP scheme does this by discouraging through traffic and ensuring vehicles which enter the area do so because they have destinations there. Mrs Lim said: 'I think the challenge is to try and find the right balance and the right trade-offs.'

She added, however, that the new gantries, collectively called the Singapore River Line, could not be solely blamed for a slowdown in business. A slowdown in the economy and higher fuel prices were among the other reasons for fewer customers and lower spending.

Mr Wong Chi Keong, the chairman of the Chinatown Business Association (CBA), agreed that the new gantries could take only so much of the blame, but said that the ERP was an added reason people were giving the area a miss.

CBA did a survey recently among more than 200 businesses and found that sales had fallen between 15 and 50 per cent.

He said: 'The main problem is because Chinatown is like a heartland town rather than a big retail area like Orchard Road.

'So every little cost for a customer will affect his decision to come here.'

CBA has called for a shortening of ERP hours in the area, so charging ends at 7pm instead of 8pm. It also suggested that the gantries be moved closer to the entries of the Central Expressway and the Ayer Rajah Expressway near Chinatown. These are the highways that traffic going through Chinatown is actually headed to, said Mr Wong.

Mrs Lim noted that the meeting also showed up some areas for better public education.

'A lot of people, including the operators themselves, thought that the ERP hours were operational on Saturdays as well, which is not the case,' she said.

She also noted that, though the Government had reduced road taxes to help offset the ERP increases, people did not link the two policy moves and often overlooked the objective of the tax cuts.

mariaa@sph.com.sg

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