PSP chief Leong Mun Wai: It seems train disruptions are our new normal

SINGAPORE: The secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party, Leong Mun Wai, addressed the issue of train disruptions in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Sept 3), which began with the former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament writing, “Enough Is Enough. No?”

Mr Leong wrote that on the first day of the month, there was already a train fault on the Circle Line (CCL) affecting service between Promenade and Bayfront, adding that it’s the 23rd such disruption for the year.

On Sept 2, there was another disruption on the North-South Line (NSL).

The PSP chief reminded the public that it’s been nearly a year since services on the East-West Line (EWL) were disrupted for six days from September 24 to 30, 2024.

“Since then, there have been some 32 reported disruptions, with at least one disruption every calendar month in 2025. It seems that this is our new normal,” he noted.

Mr Leong, who lost his bid to return to Parliament in the May 3 polls, added that Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow commented in a Facebook post on the train disruptions last month, saying that the causes of recent incidents across different lines are unrelated.

Mr Leong further claimed that former Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat had said the same when the then-NCMP had called for a Committee of Inquiry (COI) to investigate train disruptions after the EWL disruption last September and the disruptions that occurred in February.

“It is increasingly hard to believe that there is no systemic issue or concern with SBS Transit and/or SMRT leading to the repeated train disruptions, when train disruptions have impacted every single MRT and LRT line this year,” the PSP chief said.

Mr Leong also appeared to take issue with what he perceived as a failure to address the root cause of the issue. While Mr Siow had said, “We can and will do better,” at the same time, he also said that “train delays cannot be eliminated entirely and will happen from time to time”, and only committed LTA to “conduct more regular exercises on how to support commuters in different service disruption scenarios”.

“It therefore appears that the Government is not seeking to heal the injury, only to manage the resulting pain,” Mr Leong wrote.

He also noted that the investigation into the September 2024 EWL breakdown revealed that the overhaul of the train had been delayed twice by the SMRT and that the fine imposed upon SMRT had been reduced from S$3 million to S$2.4 million in acknowledgement of the company’s challenges in performing train overhauls.

And while the Government has underlined that Singapore’s train system is still performing at par with others in the world, he added that the metric used, Mean Kilometres Between Failures (MKBF), does not fully reflect the impact of train disruptions on passengers.

“More can be done to strengthen the resilience of our public transport network. For example, instead of seeing buses as just a means to funnel commuters to the MRT network, we can establish a network of skip-stop bus services to enable faster inter-town travel by bus that can also serve as another option for commuters during train disruptions, as I suggested in Parliament in October 2024.

“We cannot accept this continued spate of breakdowns, even as we are fed the narrative that breakdowns are inevitable. For many Singaporeans, public transport is the only option to get around Singapore. The Government must do better,” added the PSP chief. /TISG

Read also: Jamus Lim says he’ll raise questions in Parliament about train disruptions if needed