Singapore Wildlife Reserves (WRS) announced today (July 14th) that all trams at Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park will be converted to electricity by the end of the year.
This move comes when the WRS is strongly committed to reducing carbon emissions through more sustainable transportation.
Straits Times reports that the WRS has set itself the goal of turning its entire internal fleet, including vans, trucks, tractors and towing tractors, into an electric one by 2025.
It also works with external operators who operate buses to WRS parks to use only electric buses until the same year.
A total of 30 trams will be affected – 24 in three parks in Mandai and six in Jurong Bird Park. 80 percent of trams already run on electricity, reducing the WRS’s annual carbon footprint by 24 percent.
As a wildlife conservation organization, through consumption and what we buy for the station, we hope that making more sustainable choices will help reduce deforestation. Electric trams also mean we have cleaner air in our parks. Our staff smells the difference, and so do the guests.
Dr. Lee Hui Mien, Vice President of Sustainable Solutions at Mandai Park Development interview in The Straits Times
Electric trams are also cheaper and cost 19 percent less than old gasoline trams initially. In addition to the tram, all 84 WRS towing carts and three towing tractors, as well as some of its vans, are electric.
The WRS also supports Singapore’s efforts to promote electric vehicles (EVs) and has reserved five per cent of all available car parks in its public car park in Mandai for EV charging.
It currently has 10 EV chargers in the multi-storey car park, and another 20 are planned to be added. This will make it one of the largest public EV charging points in Singapore.
Singapore bets on EVs
In recent years, the government has expressed very loudly its position to step up the adoption of EVs in Singapore.
In last year’s speech on the budget held in February, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat gave the clearest indications of the government’s commitment to electric vehicles.
He said the country “puts a significant bet on electric vehicles and leans towards politics in that direction because it is the technology that is most promising (cleaner vehicles)”.
Then, in this year’s speech on the budget, Minister Heng announced that the government would allocate $ 30 million over the next five years for electricity-related initiatives, such as measures to improve the provision of compensation in private premises.
In addition, the government intends to deploy 60,000 bottling plants by 2030.
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Credits for featured images: Cathy and Gary’s Travel Pages
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