‘Zero disruptions’ unrealistic, but Singapore vows stronger rail reliability

Singapore’s acting transport minister Jeffrey Siow has told parliament that while “zero disruptions” across the city state’s rail network is an unrealistic expectation, the government is boosting efforts to strengthen rail reliability and provide better support for commuters when incidents occur.

“Train delays happen in every system, in every city,” Siow said during a parliamentary sitting on Monday.

“Our phones, our computers have to be restarted every now and then. Cars will break down too. So will our trains. But we aim to absolutely minimise the number of such incidents due to the inconvenience to commuters,” he said, adding that authorities would “work doubly hard to do so”.

His comments, delivered in a combined response to 18 questions from lawmakers, followed a string of service faults across several MRT and LRT lines in recent months, ranging from power outages and stalled trains to a major signal fault that suspended the Thomson-East Coast Line for two hours last week.

In response to those incidents, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit have set up a rail reliability task force aimed at identifying systemic weaknesses and strengthening the network’s resilience.

The task force, announced by Siow on Friday, is chaired by LTA chief executive Ng Lang and includes senior leadership from the two transport operators.