Questions SMRT and LTA must answer

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

by Bertha Henson

ABSOLUTELY everybody is worried about the country’s train system. Correction. They are “very” worried or “extremely” concerned that there could be a repeat of Tuesday’s two-hour shutdown. Everyone, including, worryingly, SMRT, seems downright flummoxed about what could have caused two train lines serving 54 stations to break down at once. The Opposition, predictably, is making hay while the sun shines, sensing an opportunity to ride on commuter outrage to draw blood.

It’s a pity, given that billions of dollars are being spent on replacing major assets after the December 2011 breakdowns. The problem doesn’t seem to lie there. Also, it’s a pity given that the Transport Minister reported in March this year that normalised service delays lasting more than 5 minutes have also improved on the North-South and East-West Lines, going down to 1.3 in 2014 compared to about 1.6 in 2012, an improvement of close to about 20 per cent.

Normalised MRT delays
Normalised MRT delays from 2006 to 2014.
We don’t intend to join the condemnation chorus, simply because it doesn’t serve any purpose except as a ventilation outlet, satisfying though it might be. But looking at news reports of the press conference held by SMRT and the Land Transport Authority, you do wonder if there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So here are some more questions for SMRT and LTA. It doesn’t matter whether the commercial outfit or the regulator answers because they are looking extremely interchangeable. In fact, so inter-changeable that the G should be asking itself whether it is best to let the transport operator sink on its own, so that the G can adopt the high-ground regulator approach. But no, public transport (even in private hands) is a public good, which means that the G would have to step in. How? By throwing in more money and recouping through penalties?

Technical questions:

a. SMRT has identified three possible faults but aren’t sure if they are responsible for the breakdown. Yet two of the faults – worn cable insulation and leaky tunnels – have figured before. So they weren’t rectified?

b. When was the last time the two lines underwent a quality control check? And wasn’t this supposed to be stepped up after the Commission of Inquiry in 2012?

c. If the lines were recently checked, is it safe to assume that the problem wasn’t within the scope of the checks? That is, the checklist needs an expansion?

d. Why weren’t condition monitoring services put in place to track anomalies as recommended by the last COI?

e. It was said that the design of the rail was such that one anomaly would trigger multiple trips and this was for “safety” reasons. Could someone please elaborate?

f. A new design that could isolate trips is being tested at the Downtown line. But LTA/SMRT intends to wait for results. How long would that take? And would this mean that it will be “unsafe”?

h. Or is it a question of the type of technology available at that time, which no one thought should be replaced or updated?

i. We understand fully that these are Singapore’s two oldest lines and therefore have been subjected to plenty of wear and tear. Is the Singapore experience on Tuesday night similar to that experience by the much older Hong Kong MTR or Japan’s train system?

j. Is increased passenger load (read: foreign workers here) resulting in more trains being put on the tracks a contributory factor? That is, our rail lines simply “can’t take it”?

k. Given that there is no assurance that the breakdown won’t happen again, what is your advice to commuters who use the two lines regularly? Take the bus?

l. Extra buses do not seem to have alleviated the problem much that night. Do you plan to have a better contingency plan, such as requisitioning private charter buses in emergencies? And paying them of course.

m. Given that 250,000 or so commuters were affected, what has the two hour breakdown cost the SMRT in fares forgone? What is the total overall cost to SMRT?

Here are rather more pointed questions. Sorry.

a. Would you agree that this is a big blow to Singapore’s efforts to get people to switch from private to public transport? How would you now go about selling the merits of public transport?

b. CEO Desmond Kuek said in an ST interview in June that “sustainability, not simply profitability, is our aim.” Would nationalisation be a possible way to achieve this aim of sustainability?

c. Given that transport woes was a key issue in the last election, how would this affect voting patterns given that the General Election would have to be held by January 2017?

d. A Commission of Inquiry appears to have been ruled out as too costly ($10m for the last one) and time-consuming (six months of work). Is this an indictment of the usefulness of a COI?

e. Since experts here cannot ascertain the root cause of the problem as yet, who are the outside experts who will be asked to help troubleshoot the system?

f. How much of the blame would you lay on the door of the previous SMRT regime?

g. And finally, this question: How would you respond to those who say that heads must roll for the worst rail breakdown in Singapore?

http://themiddleground.sg/2015/07/09...for-smrtlta-2/


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