By
Woo Sian Boon
.
Published: 24 January, 4:08 AM
SINGAPORE — A day after services between four MRT stations broke down due to a rare human error, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew yesterday met SMRT’s senior management to express his concern and disappointment over a spate of train disruptions this month.
The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said in a statement that Mr Lui had urged SMRT’s senior management to quickly identify the root causes of the occurrences and determine whether these incidents resulted from engineering or procedural shortcomings.
Mr Lui also asked SMRT to provide an update next week on its investigations as well as the remedial actions it will be taking.
He said: “I share the frustrations of train commuters affected by these incidents and I empathise with them on the anxiety and uncertainty that they may experience. I am also very concerned about SMRT’s service recovery efforts, particularly in reaching out to affected commuters promptly and keeping them updated during these incidents.”
During the meeting, Mr Lui was briefed about the status of SMRT’s investigations and preliminary internal findings, the MOT said.
The ministry added that SMRT Chief Executive Desmond Kuek had assured Mr Lui that SMRT will do its very best to improve service recovery and step up checks to minimise service disruptions.
In the latest breakdown on Wednesday night, train services between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris MRT stations on the East-West Line were disrupted for about an hour. SMRTattributed it to a trackside fault which had developed at 10.12pm, after a train driver bypassed a signal point without authorisation. Safety measures kicked in and as a result, train services between the four stations were disrupted.
TODAY understands that signal points are used to regulate the movement of trains on the rail network. In this instance, the driver was understood to have moved the train past a particular signal point when he was not supposed to, triggering an alert to the command centre.
In response to TODAY’s queries including whether the driver was disciplined and how many layers of safety measures are in place when a train bypasses a signal point without authorisation, SMRT Vice-President for Corporate Information and Communications Patrick Nathan would only say the public transport operator will step up checks to minimise service disruptions and improve service recovery.
He added: “The focus will be on reducing technical and operational shortcomings to improve the overall safety and reliability of the system.”
During the disruption, two trains were re-routed as a safety precaution. About 180 passengers on one train were re-routed to Simei MRT Station, while another 200 passengers on the other train had to alight at Expo MRT Station. Free bus bridging services were deployed to ferry the affected commuters between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations.
SMRT reiterated that it takes a serious view of any breach of operational protocols and disciplinary action will be taken if necessary.
The last reported incident in which human error led to a train breakdown occurred in January 2008, when services were disrupted for seven hours — also on the East-West Line between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations. Then, workers had failed to engage the parking brake of one portion of a maintenance train, causing it to roll back and slam into its locomotive when the primary brakes failed.
The disruption on Wednesday was the sixth to hit SMRT this month. On Monday, about 19,000 passengers were affected when train services on the North-South Line broke down for more than an hour during the morning peak period.
The day before, commuters had to put up with a 46-minute delay on the Bukit Panjang LRT. This was preceded by delays on Jan 16 and Jan 11, which lasted about two-and-a-half hours and one-and-a-half hours on the East-West Line and North-South Line, respectively.
Woo Sian Boon
.
Published: 24 January, 4:08 AM
SINGAPORE — A day after services between four MRT stations broke down due to a rare human error, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew yesterday met SMRT’s senior management to express his concern and disappointment over a spate of train disruptions this month.
The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said in a statement that Mr Lui had urged SMRT’s senior management to quickly identify the root causes of the occurrences and determine whether these incidents resulted from engineering or procedural shortcomings.
Mr Lui also asked SMRT to provide an update next week on its investigations as well as the remedial actions it will be taking.
He said: “I share the frustrations of train commuters affected by these incidents and I empathise with them on the anxiety and uncertainty that they may experience. I am also very concerned about SMRT’s service recovery efforts, particularly in reaching out to affected commuters promptly and keeping them updated during these incidents.”
During the meeting, Mr Lui was briefed about the status of SMRT’s investigations and preliminary internal findings, the MOT said.
The ministry added that SMRT Chief Executive Desmond Kuek had assured Mr Lui that SMRT will do its very best to improve service recovery and step up checks to minimise service disruptions.
In the latest breakdown on Wednesday night, train services between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris MRT stations on the East-West Line were disrupted for about an hour. SMRTattributed it to a trackside fault which had developed at 10.12pm, after a train driver bypassed a signal point without authorisation. Safety measures kicked in and as a result, train services between the four stations were disrupted.
TODAY understands that signal points are used to regulate the movement of trains on the rail network. In this instance, the driver was understood to have moved the train past a particular signal point when he was not supposed to, triggering an alert to the command centre.
In response to TODAY’s queries including whether the driver was disciplined and how many layers of safety measures are in place when a train bypasses a signal point without authorisation, SMRT Vice-President for Corporate Information and Communications Patrick Nathan would only say the public transport operator will step up checks to minimise service disruptions and improve service recovery.
He added: “The focus will be on reducing technical and operational shortcomings to improve the overall safety and reliability of the system.”
During the disruption, two trains were re-routed as a safety precaution. About 180 passengers on one train were re-routed to Simei MRT Station, while another 200 passengers on the other train had to alight at Expo MRT Station. Free bus bridging services were deployed to ferry the affected commuters between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations.
SMRT reiterated that it takes a serious view of any breach of operational protocols and disciplinary action will be taken if necessary.
The last reported incident in which human error led to a train breakdown occurred in January 2008, when services were disrupted for seven hours — also on the East-West Line between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations. Then, workers had failed to engage the parking brake of one portion of a maintenance train, causing it to roll back and slam into its locomotive when the primary brakes failed.
The disruption on Wednesday was the sixth to hit SMRT this month. On Monday, about 19,000 passengers were affected when train services on the North-South Line broke down for more than an hour during the morning peak period.
The day before, commuters had to put up with a 46-minute delay on the Bukit Panjang LRT. This was preceded by delays on Jan 16 and Jan 11, which lasted about two-and-a-half hours and one-and-a-half hours on the East-West Line and North-South Line, respectively.
