The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit will form a Rail Reliability Taskforce which will be chaired by LTA Chief Executive Ng Lang and include SMRT Group Chief Executive Officer Ngien Hoon Ping, SBST Group Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Sim, and technical specialists drawn from across the rail sector. It will develop and implement immediate solutions to improve rail reliability and  joint responses to service disruptions. The taskforce will report its findings to the Acting Minister of Transport regularly and submit its final recommendations by the end of the year.

Accelerated Asset Upgrading and Renewal Programme 

The Taskforce will review recent incidents (Annex) to identify components involved that are approaching end-of-life and require replacement, upgrading or increased maintenance. The taskforce will look into bringing forward the renewal programme for the North East Line (NEL) power system while reviewing ways to strengthen the signalling system for the NEL and Circle Line in the short term before renewal is due. 

Joint Technical Audits of Critical Systems 

The Taskforce will jointly also carry out full technical audits of the maintenance and operations of critical systems. These audits will include a review of asset conditions, maintenance processes, operational and redundancy procedures, as well as staff training and competency.   

Enhanced Decision-Making for Service Recovery 

The Taskforce will also review service recovery processes with the view of reducing the impact of service delays to our commuters. The Taskforce will review procedures to improve service recovery speeds, such as reducing the number of detrainments which impact service recovery time, without compromising on commuter safety. The Taskforce will also review training regimes to ensure that officers on the ground can adequately perform service recovery during service incidents. 

The Government has earlier set aside an additional $1 billion over the next five years to further strengthen our rail capabilities, scale up technology adoption and support skills upgrading for our workers. We seek the understanding and patience of commuters as we work as #OneTransportTeam to improve our MRT system. 

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Annex – Recent Key Incidents for Review