SINGAPORE — The number of major MRT delays has continued to creep up, with 16 major disruptions lasting more than 30 minutes last year – double the number in 2012.
While overall reliability – in terms of average distance travelled by trains between failures of more than five minutes – has improved, based on statistics released by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Thursday (Jan 12), last year’s performance fell short of the Government’s interim target.
Last year, the average distance rose to 174,000 train-km, up by 30 per cent compared to 2015. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) had set an interim target of 200,000 train-km for last year.
Among the five MRT lines, the Downtown, Circle and North-South lines registered improvements, while reliability on the North-East and East-West lines dipped.
The number of major disruptions lasting more than 30 minutes inched up by one, compared to 2015 – the third consecutive year of increase. The East-West line was the worst performer – accounting for almost a third of major delays last year, with five incidents.
Speaking at a forum on infrastructure maintenance, Permanent Secretary for Transport Pang Kin Keong attributed the reliability improvements to “sharply intensified maintenance regimes put in place by the operators”, along with higher investment to upgrade and renew rail assets. To further improve rail reliability, the Government will plough in some S$4 billion to renew, upgrade and expand existing rail assets, he said. The amount is on top of the S$20 billion it has committed to spending on new rail lines in the same period, he added.
He said the LTA will soon call for a tender to replace 66 first-generation trains, which are 29 years old and currently ply the North-South and East-West lines. The power supply systems, in use since the MRT first started in 1987, on both lines will also undergo replacement and enhancement work.
“(The) upgrade should help bring down the number of disruptions caused by power malfunction,” said Mr Pang. First-generation assets on the Bukit Panjang LRT will also be replaced.
Despite missing the interim target, Mr Pang said he was confident that the 2018 target of 400,000 train-km between failures can be attained.
