But drivers aren't the only ones crying woe. Businesses, and train and taxi commuters have all lamented that the new ERP gantries have affected them too.

ERP charges for these gantries are $2 from 6pm to 7.30pm and $1 from 7.30pm to 8pm on weekdays. They are meant to reduce the volume of traffic cutting through the Singapore River area en route elsewhere.

Traffic there fell by 30 per cent on Monday, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The Sunday Times spoke to those HIT BY THE NEW NETWORK Mavis Toh reports.

DRIVERS' GROUSE

Petrol prices are so high, why hit me more?

For a 10-minute drive from Marina Boulevard to Orchard Road, marketing manager James Wong will hit three ERP gantries and be poorer by $5.

One week since the five new ERP gantries along the Singapore River started operations, drivers are feeling the pinch.

Many pointed to rocketing petrol prices and the higher cost of living and said: The new gantries come at a bad time.

Said Mr Wong, 39: 'I now plan my routes to avoid hitting unnecessary gantries.'

Many motorists also wondered why gantries are being erected in areas which did not seem jam-packed in the first place.

Personal banking officer Tan Seng Kin, 52, who drives down Fullerton Road to get to the East Coast Parkway (ECP) to his Bedok home daily, said: 'There isn't a jam to begin with; I don't see the reason for the gantry.'

In response, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that if congestion is dealt with only after the roads are gridlocked, it will be too late and the costs to the environment and economy would be huge.

It added that evening traffic speeds in the CBD have been slowing down in recent years, and in the city centre, have fallen below the threshold speed.

To avoid the ERP, some drivers have taken other routes, causing jams there.

Accountant Lawrence Ong, 42, has seen his journey time through the Swissotel The Stamford area doubled to 10 minutes.

'Perhaps another gantry will be set up here in the future,' he said.

LTA said: 'As congestion becomes more pervasive, increasingly the alternative way may not be another route, but public transport.'

The agency is working with transport operators to introduce more premium bus services, increasing bus frequencies and running more train trips. Bus lanes were also put in to allow buses to travel faster.