Riding Singapore’s MRT with a Kid: How We Paid, Navigated, and Stayed Cool

By Tristan | October 7, 2026 | Destinations | Singapore

Fares and rules as of October 2026, updated October 17. Check the LTA website before you go.

Our daughter’s favorite moment of our first full day in Singapore was the one where I handed her a credit card.

Singapore is a giant, bustling city, but its MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) subway system makes getting around surprisingly easy. We used it for all five of our days here, and it taught us a few things worth sharing. Here’s everything we learned riding the Singapore MRT with our kid for five days.

From Changi to the city

Singapore was our entry point to Southeast Asia, and we arrived after more than 24 hours of travel with a small mountain of luggage. For that first ride to the hotel, we took Grab, Southeast Asia’s dominant ride-hailing app. It was smooth, and it was the right call for us that day.

If you’re traveling lighter, the MRT is a good option from the airport. The airport station is a branch line, so you transfer at Tanah Merah or Expo to reach the city. It takes roughly 35-40 minutes and costs around S$2-3, compared with about S$20-40 for a Grab. A few things to know:

• The last train from the airport leaves around 11:18 PM.
• Terminal 4 has no direct MRT link. Take the free shuttle to Terminal 3 first.
• Airport-branch trains run less often than city lines: every 7-9 minutes at peak, 12-13 off-peak.

Our Grab driver told us to use the MRT for nearly everything else in the city. We took his advice and didn’t use Grab again until the ride back to the airport.

How to pay (with a kid)

Our main question before our first ride was how to pay. The MRT uses a tap system: every passenger taps in at the gate and taps out again at the end of the trip. You can tap with a contactless credit card or a phone wallet like Apple Pay.

The key rule is one card or device per person, and the same one to tap in and out. You can’t pay for multiple travelers with one card. For the three of us, that meant my wife and I each used Apple Pay, each with a different underlying credit card. At the station, I handed Hazel a separate card to tap with.

She loved the “grown-up” responsibility. I took the card back after every entry and exit.

What kids pay. Rules depend on a child’s height and age:

• Under 0.9 m (about 3 feet): free, with a paying adult. No card is needed.
• 0.9 m and up, and under 7: free, but you need a free Child Concession Card from a TransitLink or SimplyGo ticket office. Ask at any MRT station ticket office.
• 7 and older: children generally pay the regular adult fare unless they hold a Singapore student concession card. Hazel was 8 and taller than 0.9 m, so the free options didn’t apply to us. She paid the full fare, tapping a contactless card of her own.

You can also buy a prepaid EZ-Link card at ticket offices and shops, or a Singapore Tourist Pass. We skipped both because we had enough cards. For visitors taking a few rides a day, paying per trip with contactless as we did is usually cheaper than a pass. We found that most of our rides cost S$2-$3 per person.

For current details, see LTA’s guide for parents and SimplyGo’s child fares.

Finding your way

We used Google Maps to plan every route. It tells you which line to board, which direction to go, and where to get off.

• Station signs name the line, and direction is shown by the last stop on that route.
• Inside the train, signs show the current and upcoming stops, so it’s easy to count how many you have left.
• Wait times: on the main lines, we never waited more than five minutes for a train.
• Crowds: trains fill up at morning and evening rush hours, but we always found space. On some train station platforms, signs predict how full each car is, encouraging waiting passengers to queue for the cars with more space.
• Boarding is orderly. People wait on either side of the doors while passengers get off first.

Staying cool and comfortable

The stations and trains were clean, felt very safe, and, best of all, were air-conditioned. In Singapore’s heat and humidity, we often lingered for an extra minute before heading back out.

A few practical notes:

• Stand on the left on escalators and leave the right side open for people walking.
• No eating or drinking on trains or in stations. Fines can reach S$500, even for water.  There were signs to this effect in each train and station.  
• Check the exit before you leave. Large stations can have five or more exits, sometimes several blocks apart. We learned the hard way that it’s worth stopping underground, in the A/C, to check Google Maps for the exit closest to your destination.
• Most stations have toilets, and some have shops tucked inside.

Our verdict

The MRT is one of the best metro systems I’ve ever used. It’s efficient, clean, and easy enough for an eight-year-old to  enjoy. Compared with the heat, humidity, and construction above ground, getting around underground was cool and simple.

Quick tips

1. Check your child’s height and age. Under-7s may ride free.
2. Use one contactless card or phone per person, and tap in and out with the same one.
3. Use Google Maps to pick your line, direction, and exit.
4. Take Grab from the airport if you’re tired or have heavy luggage. Otherwise, the MRT is cheaper.
5. Don’t eat or drink on trains or in stations.
6. Stand left on escalators.