MRT track delay and the ‘Yes We Can’ narrative in Singapore working life
The Straits Times
The Straits Times
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Published Aug 11, 2025
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Before I get cancelled, let me begin by acknowledging that it was bad. Very bad. A
five-hour MRT delay is awful in any situation, disruptive when it occurs on a main arterial line joining East and West Singapore, and the worst when the interruption comes during rush hour.
All these ingredients for a perfect storm coalesced last week when
a faulty point machine threw people’s morning commute into disarray. And right on cue, the Singapore government had a swift public response. “I can understand commuters’ frustration… It messes up your day and throws off your plans,” acting transport minister Jeffrey Siow said in a Facebook post. “We can and will do better”.
Taking responsibility seemed like the sensible, even expected, approach. It mirrors the kind of cultural ethos I see in many workplaces – where the employee in question responsible for a mess-up has to do some convoluted after-action review, and implement an inane series of steps to prevent recurrence. Or when a boss asks for the sky and you gulp but say okay.
Plus in this case, the incident comes on the back of a disappointing string of delays in July after a signalling fault on the Thomson-East Coast line caused a two-hour disruption and two power-related issues crippled the entire Bukit Panjang LRT network.
Yes, the response is understandable and warranted. Beyond the inconvenience posed to ordinary Singaporeans just trying to head to work, the issues plaguing the MRT line also casts a pall on big public policy goals. For all the talk of expansion of transport access, with more MRT lines and bus services rolled out, it’s hard to achieve a car-lite society if service reliability of public transport is in doubt.
This is why bus and rail operators are
held to high standards.
Train delays also potentially affect people disproportionately, something transport economics and planning must bear in mind. A 2018 study of New York subway commuting patterns show
subway downtime affects low-income households most because they tend to live farther from the city centre in the first place, and have no choice but to wait out the worst delays. There just aren’t alternatives.
Now, many Singaporeans rightly point to the investments on maintenance funded by higher transport fees and public coffers, as signs that delays are problematic. But can we reasonably expect zero delays – and how much will that cost us? Instead of expecting perfection, we should invest more in helping commuters cope – with bridging transport, early warnings, and realistic travel-time estimates.
