Plans to Augment LTA's Capabilities Given Expanded Roles
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Mr Zaqy Mohamad’s inquiry regarding the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) restructuring and capability augmentation to manage its expanded roles in bus contracting, rail financing, and the future Singapore-Malaysia High-Speed Rail. Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan responded that LTA has increased its headcount by 35% since 2013 and plans to add 900 new engineering positions over the next two years. He highlighted that LTA is adopting international best practices through global benchmarking and the establishment of specialist advisory panels to enhance asset management and maintenance. The agency has reorganized into four new specialist teams dedicated to rail and bus asset management, bus tendering, and the High-Speed Rail group. Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan noted that further restructuring will occur as projects evolve to ensure robust governance and improved service delivery.
Transcript
85 Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Transport (a) what are the plans to augment LTA's capabilities due to its expanded role covering the new bus contracting model, new rail financing framework and the future Singapore-Malaysia high-speed rail; (b) whether there are plans to restructure LTA to better execute its role as a regulator, asset owner and industry developer; and (c) what new capabilities will be put in place to ensure better governance and service delivery of rail and bus services under the new structure.
Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The new public bus and rail financing models and the future Singapore-KL High Speed Rail will indeed, require new resources and capabilities on the part of LTA.
LTA has increased its headcount steadily since 2013 by about 35%. This growth was largely in engineering and asset management. In the next two years, LTA will add another 900 new engineering positions.
Second, LTA has been tapping the experiences of other jurisdictions. Amongst others, it has been studying the public transport tendering and contract management approaches used in the UK, Sweden, Australia and Germany. It has been in discussions with and conducted visits to the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway, Taipei Metro and London Underground to understand their asset management and maintenance processes. LTA has also established platforms, such as the Rail Excellence Advisory Panel and the High Speed Rail International Advisory Panel, so as to be able to discuss the issues directly with experienced practitioners who have faced similar challenges in their work abroad.
Third, LTA has undergone reorganisation to be able to better deliver on its expanded mandate. Four new specialist teams have been formed a rail asset management team, a bus asset management team, a bus service tendering and contract team and a High Speed Rail group. As the projects progress, in particular, as and when there is further agreement with Malaysia on the High Speed Rail, LTA will further restructure and reorganise itself as needed.