Measures to Benchmark and Improve MRT Service Disruption Problems

6 Mr Azmoon Ahmad asked the Minister for Transport (a) what actions have been taken to improve our MRT service disruption problems; (b) whether there have been any benchmarks made with other rail service providers from other world class cities and, if so, where does Singapore stand; and (c) how long more can it be expected for our MRT services to be seen as on par with other world class cities in respect of frequency of disruptions.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Khaw Boon Wan): Madam, as I said just a while ago, our rail reliability is improving, but we are not yet where we want to be. Our Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains now travel about 158,000 train-kilometre (km), almost 160,000 train-km, between delays of more than five minutes. This is a common industry-wide performance indicator on reliability.

This performance, 158,000 train-km, is better than the performance of last year of 133,000 train-km: about 160,000 train-km versus 130,000 train-km. However, we are still quite far off from Hong Kong (Mass Transit Railway’s (MTR's) performance of 360,000 train-km and Taipei Metro's 800,000 train-km. The best in class chalks up 800,000 train-km; we are now 160,000 train-km. We have set ourselves a target of 400,000 train-km by 2018 and 800,000 train-km by 2020 for our MRT lines.

Together with the operators, we have a comprehensive plan to reach this higher standard. First, we are improving the current maintenance regimes. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has introduced new process-based Maintenance Performance Standards to address maintenance issues upstream before delays occur. LTA and the operators have increased their maintenance and engineering manpower and stepped up maintenance checks.

Second, with the transition of the industry to the New Rail Financing Framework, where the Government will own the operating assets, we will be able to renew and replace all operating assets in a timely manner. Some of the renewal works for the North-South and East-West Lines have already begun. For example, the replacement of sleepers, the signalling system and the power rail would all be completed by 2018.

Third, we are expanding our rail network to enhance its resilience. Commuters will then have alternative routes on the rail network to get to their destinations should there be a disruption on one of them.

Finally, we are building up the expertise of our rail engineers. LTA has set up various advisory panels, comprising international and local experts, to get advice and to learn from their experience and the international best practices. We are also setting up the Singapore Rail Academy to augment industry efforts in manpower development.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Azmoon Ahmad.

Mr Azmoon Ahmad (Nominated Member): I would like to thank the Minister for Transport for such an elaborate answer. One area I would like to know from the Minister, is whether he feels there is a need to set up a quality initiative within the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) organisation?

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The answer is yes. We are in this business where reliability and quality are paramount because if you are not able to deliver quality and reliability, then you are in the wrong business. So, that must be the culture and, at least, based on the current team that I have been working with the last one year, I think it is in their DNA. We will deliver on this – not to worry.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): Madam, can I take the opportunity to ask the Minister whether he can update the House on whether the cause of the recent Circle Line breakdown has been uncovered?

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The Circle Line incident is a very interesting incident that my team has spent several weeks on. We are challenged by that, but we find it exciting tackling this challenging incident. The cause is clear, that there was signal interference – a particular signal was interfering with our wireless signalling system and causing some of these difficulties. But tracking down the source of the interfering signal requires a lot of effort, and it is intellectually very challenging because there are many possibilities and we just got to, one by one, through elimination, try to establish what exactly is the source. We are very close to it now and I am fairly confident that, within this week, we will be able to go public on what exactly was the source and how we will fix it. I think in a few days' time. Let us watch the American Presidential Election first.