Jeffrey Siow addresses unhappiness with train disruption, but underlines that SG has ‘1 of the most reliable systems in the world’

SINGAPORE: In Parliament on Monday (Sep 22), Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow noted that there had been a total of 18 questions filed regarding the recent train disruptions and Singapore’s rail reliability.

While he acknowledged that the disruptions have been a cause of frustration for many Singaporeans, he nevertheless characterised the city-state’s train system as “one of the most reliable in the world,” based on the key measure of reliability, which is mean kilometres between failure (MKBF).

At present, Singapore’s MKBF is at 1.7 million train-km, which is higher than the 2017 target of 1 million. Nevertheless, in 2022 and 2023, the MKBF was over 2 million.

However, the Acting Minister pointed out that Singapore’s MKBF is better than Hong Kong’s. And based on the metric of delays greater than 30 minutes per million train-km, it is performing at par with Tokyo and other cities in Japan.

Mr Siow also said that expecting there to be no disruptions at all would be unrealistic.

“Train delays happen in every system, in every city. Our phones, our computers have to be restarted every now and then. Cars will break down, too. So will our trains,” the Acting Minister said.

He added in a Facebook post on Monday night that keeping Singapore’s MRT network safe and reliable is still his top priority, and as reliable as it is, “We must do better. That’s why I’ve asked LTA, SMRT and SBST to form a Rail Reliability Taskforce to speed up renewals, tighten maintenance, and improve how we recover and support commuters during disruptions.”

What Singaporeans are saying

Many Singaporeans, however, expressed unhappiness with the current state of train services.

“In the private sector, when such things happen, there will be a head that rolls,” a Reddit user wrote.

Some were outright disbelieving, such as one commenter on Facebook who wrote, “The art of saying something without saying anything. The art of proving something without showing anything. The art of justifying the results without showing any results.”

Another appealed to Mr Siow to “review the performance of the LTA CEO. His lack of oversight in the past years has contributed to the failures we are now facing in the train system. Stronger leadership is needed to restore accountability and public confidence.”

Some felt that Mr Siow’s remarks gave rise to even more questions.

“Of course, no one thinks it’s possible to have zero disruption. What we want is to minimise the inconvenience. When there’s a disruption, there should be a way to get to an alternative mode of transport without a long wait.

“Is the current arrangement for bridging service that takes people basically along the affected line the best solution? Should there be bus routes designed to disperse passengers to alternative MRT lines instead? I’m sure LTA has the expertise to figure it out. Why we’re not seeing this done is hard to understand,” a Reddit user wrote. /TISG

Read also: ’16 disruptions in 2.5 months is insane’ — S’poreans react to latest train disruptions