LTA looking into how MRT service delays are communicated after public feedback on the issue
30 Nov 2017 05:19PM (Updated: 30 Nov 2017 07:03PM)
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SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Thursday (Nov 30) it has received feedback from commuters on rail operators’ announcements during service delays, and will be looking into the matter.
Responding to queries from Channel NewsAsia on SMRT’s social media posts during train delays, LTA said it recognises that “information management is important, especially during an MRT service delay”.
Hence, the agency stressed that rail operators “are required to inform passengers of any delay exceeding 10 minutes”.
“Besides regular announcements to passengers within stations and on board trains, updated information is also disseminated through other channels for greater outreach, such as mainstream media, and social media like Twitter and Facebook if the delay worsens,” LTA added.
In a report earlier this month, Channel NewsAsia noted that there were five incidents in November involving train delays or track faults that were highlighted by commuters and reported by the media, but not announced on SMRT’s social media platforms.
Read more at
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...-after-9455100
This also you want to look into ? Simple lah announce on twitter and facebook and all official media . Any breakdown is still a breakdown irregardless of how long is the breakdown . The question should be asked why isn’t SMRT announcing all the breakdown s through various platforms ? What is SMRT trying to hide ???
SMRT is a failure of governance and not free markets
Published on 2017-11-30 by The Online Citizen
by Wesley Goh
Of recent times, Singapore’s Mass Rapid Transport system (SMRT) has been embroiled in successive failures in its train service and public faith has dwindled to the point where disruptions have been normalised into daily commutes. Flooded tunnels, the incompatibility of new trains and train systems were clear indications of SMRT’s callousness and neglect of infrastructural maintenance. A lamentable service wrought upon itself, most would surely think that this was a result of corporate greed and private self-interests. However, I would like to dissuade the public from such opinions and explain that its failures are the result of the government’s interventionist policies and the lack of free markets.
When the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced in the middle of 2016, that it was conducting a hostile takeover of SMRT’s shares, shareholders of SMRT surprisingly voted strongly in favour of the buyout. It was further met with approval and consent from the public on the premise of belief that somehow a government takeover would miraculously solve all of SMRT’s problems. This event should have been an obvious indication to the general public that it will bloat the government’s current fiscal budgeting and contribute to the recent proposal to increase taxes. Yet, this strangely eluded everyone.
Lately, LTA’s announcement to use 10 million dollars of taxpayer funds to unclog SMRT’s decaying infrastructure was not well received and many took their displeasure to the comment boards of articles reporting on LTA’s move. Many were indignant that taxpayers are bearing the cost of SMRT’s neglect. A natural response, however, these arguments hold no credibility or weight as it is obvious that government ownership of SMRT meant that repairs have to come from taxes. It is what we pay taxes for.
At this point, some might say that this is the result of privatisation that fuelled corporate greed netting us SMRT’s current predicament and taxpayers would now have to pay for it in order to get some semblance of an efficient public transportation up again. A reasonable conjecture but SMRT’s failures are not apolitical but a failure of central planning and government policies.
Our government has always prided itself in its ability to provide an efficient, reliable and affordable public transport. With one of the lowest taxes in the world and the government’s direction to suppress fares without encumbering the taxpayer on fare subsidies, this affordability came at a cost. A cost that is unsustainable and waiting for an implosion.
continue reading here :
The strain of taking the train: Changing commuter habits
While the overwhelming majority of train rides are smooth, recent problems have been frequent enough to persuade some people to change their travel habits by either using buses or starting their commute earlier.
By Jalelah Abu Baker @JalelahCNA
01 Dec 2017 06:47AM (Updated: 01 Dec 2017 07:11AM)
SINGAPORE: Delays on Singapore’s train network have become frequent enough for some commuters to change their routines to accommodate them.
On Thursday (Nov 30), passengers reported delays at Raffles Place station because of a train fault. This was the latest in a series of problems over the past couple of months.
However, such incidents are no longer a problem for tax practitioner Paul Lee, who took the MRT to his workplace on Orchard Road for about nine years, but then switched to travelling by bus. Mr Lee, who lives in Serangoon, said that he decided to switch after finding the trains a bit too unpredictable.
He said that he was given a warning by his employer after delays caused him to be late to work six times in three years.
Before he stopped taking the MRT, he tried taking a different route by train, he said. But this did not help. The final straw for him was a delay on the North-East Line about eight months ago, in which he was shoved into the train by other commuters crowding on to the delayed service.
“My hand nearly got caught in between the doors, and the doors nearly closed on me. I was standing half inside, half outside,” said Mr Lee, who has cerebral palsy.
He now takes either a premium bus or public buses. “Taking the bus, I feel like I am in control of the situation. I can take a premium bus, or another straight bus, or switch buses,” he said, adding that he is more relaxed taking the bus.
Such decisions come against a backdrop of high profile problems on the train network. Earlier this month, 38 people were injured after a software glitch in the East-West Line signalling system caused two trains to collide at Joo Koon MRT station. In October, the stretch of tunnel between Bishan and Braddell MRT stations became flooded, leading to a suspension of services.
Read more at
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...habits-9449062
I wonder why is it so hard to provide info to your paying commuters about service disruptions ? Where is your customer service ? Also what happen to the mainstream media ? Shouldn’t you guys be reporting and providing reliable information to your readers ? By not reporting how can we trust you and the PAP ??? So you still want to vote for PAP ?
LTA: SMRT must not skip train disruption notifications
November 30, 2017
After overlooking SMRT’s deliberate cover up of train disruption notifications, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has finally spoken up to clarify that the government-owned transport operator should not skip notifications of delays over 10 minutes.
“Train operators must tell commuters of any delays exceeding 10 minutes through train and station announcements as well as via mainstream and social media. We have received feedback from commuters on rail operators’ public announcements during service delays, and will be looking into this matter. Besides train and station announcements, operators are expected to provide information through other channels if delays worsen. These include mainstream media and social media like Twitter and Facebook.”
On Nov 9, a 30-min-long disruption occurred at the East-West Line and SMRT made no public announcement. This resulted in chaos and massive human traffic jam at the stations with queues stretching as far as 300m. It is believed that by taking the disruptions off the record, SMRT is able to statistically improve it’s rail reliability.
The LTA however refrained from stating if skipping public announcements will result in any penalty. The regulatory authority has been in cahoots with SMRT recently over the playing down of rail incidents. During the train collision which resulted in 38 injuries on Nov 15, LTA refused to use the word “collision” and played with words saying “the trains came into contact”. The LTA recently also pooled in taxes and allowed SMRT to charge train fares for train-replacement bus services which should otherwise be free.
continue reading here :
MP Zainal Sapari: Employers should be understanding of train disruptions
December 1, 2017
After receiving feedback from Singaporeans who were penalized for being late to work numerous times due to train service disruptions, PAP MP Zainal Sapari called for employers to be “understanding”.
“Employers should be understanding about train delays, as the circumstances are out of their control. Trust is important in any employer and employee relationship. Most employers would not reprimand their employees if they are late due to train breakdowns because such incidents can be verified.”
Also the deputy chairman for the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower, MP Zainal Sapari said that it is hard for employees to change their travelling habit.
Train service disruptions cost as much as tens of millions in economic losses, depending on it’s scale and length of downtime. The statistic is however covered up by the government, to downplay the seriousness of service disruptions. Most Singapore employers are however unforgiving, and some even demanded their staff to leave from home earlier to compensate for the unreliability of public transport.
A tax practitioner state media CNA spoke to said that he was given a warning after he was late six times in the past 3 years due to train breakdowns. Other interviewees also gave feedback that they are not able to take alternate routes due to the lack of bus services to their workplace.
Despite the worsening state of train reliability, the Singapore government insists that services are improving based off government statistics. The CEO of SMRT, Desmond Kuek, remains unharmed despite being at helm of the company for over 5 years. Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan is also not held responsible over the state of public transport.
continue reading here :
https://statestimesreview.com/2017/1...n-disruptions/
In fact employers should sue SMRT & SBS Transit every time there is a service disruption and not punish your workers .
S’pore’s first generation leaders might’ve dealt with MRT problems differently
But their approach might not be entirely relevant to the present.
By Henedick Chng | December 2, 2017
Our MRT system is in a beleaguered state after all the problems that have plagued it recently.
Even though plans have been announced for maintenance work to be carried out in December, many Singaporeans are still cynical at the likelihood of things getting resolved anytime soon.
It is a tough time for Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, SMRT chairmain Seah Moon Ming and CEO Desmond Kuek, who are in the hot seat.
Khaw, in particular, has been the main person fronting and addressing the general public on the rail system’s numerous issues which has not gone unnoticed.
Nobody would want to be in their positions at the moment.
At troubled times like these, people sometimes look back into the past to sieve out some best practices, principles, values, and management guidance for inspiration and for adaptation in the present context.
So, let’s take look what some of Singapore’s old guard leaders had up their sleeves in dealing with problems.
Why the Old Guards?
Singapore’s founding generation of leaders led by prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had a reputation for getting things done and solving immensely difficult problems.
They did, after all, lead Singapore through tumultuous times in our early days as an independent country to build it into what it is today.
continue reading here :
https://mothership.sg/2017/12/spores...s-differently/
Truly a well written article . Besides dealing with people and management issues one should also look at the hardware ; software and infrastructure issues . Through the years the older lines of mrt have gone through wear and tear . It need to be progressively well maintained just like our roads and vehicles. Your priority is to maintain an effective and efficient and safe mrt to the public who use your service everyday . But so far SMRT have not delivered . The Joo Koon collision should be a wake up call to SMRT ; LTA & MOT .
Lessons to be learnt from SMRT’s leadership woes
Han Fook Kwang
Editor At Large
Published 4 hours ago
Company’s earlier mojo had much to do with the fact that it was led by seasoned transport engineers
What lessons can Singapore learn from the problems bedevilling its mass rapid transit (MRT)?
It was interesting that the Prime Minister raised this at the People’s Action Party convention last month, considering it was a party meeting and not a government or transport conference.
But it shows how political the issue has become, and how it could, if not satisfactorily addressed, affect the party’s chances at the next general election due by 2021.
To outsiders, this might be hard to comprehend. It’s not as if the country is facing a corruption scandal, or large unemployment or civil unrest.
Trains breaking down?
Governments have not been known to be rattled by such mundane issues.
But Singapore’s MRT problems are not straightforward either, because they are not just technical or engineering in nature but have to do with other issues such as corporate culture, the running of state-owned companies and the politics of public transport.
You could write an entire book on it with those themes and bill it as part of the Singapore Story - sterling performance in the beginning but breaking down in the later years.
So, let’s begin with the first chapter on engineering competence.
Much has been said about the technical failures that have occurred over the years - ageing tracks, third rail and signalling systems that are now being replaced, and faulty water pumps.
But the biggest failure has been a loss of engineering focus at the top with not enough attention and resources deployed to ensure the system delivers what all MRTs are designed to do: safe and reliable service all the time, always keeping up with commuter demand.
Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan put it this way in a speech last year: “We were then an exemplary MRT player and a subject of study. Unfortunately, maybe due to complacency and certainly distracted management attention, we lost our earlier mojo. At the moment I would describe the cup as three-quarters empty.”
What made for the earlier mojo? There are many reasons but I believe the most important was that the men who led the company in the beginning were engineers by training and profession.
Heading it was Mr Lim Leong Geok, a Public Works Department engineer who also had a stint running Singapore Bus Services (SBS) when he led a team of government officers seconded there.
After his bus assignment, he was put in charge of the construction of the entire North-South and East-West lines, and, when it was completed, ran the train operations. In other words, a seasoned transport hand who knew the system inside out, and so did the team around him.
It was fortunate that Singapore had these pioneer transport engineers at the beginning, though it nearly lost Mr Lim.
continue reading here :
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/...eadership-woes
What lessons have we learnt ? 1 ) That army generals do not have the necessary skill to lead a huge corporation . 2 ) That the government and regulator should not get involved in running a free market enterprise companies . 3) Certainly that there is something seriously wrong with SMRT . 4) Why the current SMRT CEO was not sacked despite so many breakdowns .
Study shows 65% of respondents have lost confidence in MRT system
December 4, 2017
A poll conducted by a market research company, Blackbox Research, has found that public confidence in the MRT system has severely dipped after several high-profile disruptions occurred recently, with 65 per cent of respondents saying they do not believe the public train system is well-managed.
The findings of the survey echo Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s comments on 19 Nov that persistent rail issues have “hurt public confidence a lot”.
The head of government’s observations came less than a week after the MRT collision between two trains at Joo Koon station, injuring about 38 individuals. The collision followed an unprecedented tunnel flooding near Bishan Station on 7 Oct, affecting about 250,000 commuters.
It was later revealed that the maintenance records for the the anti-flood system at the station had been falsified, while no actual works were conducted for close to a year before the incident.
continue reading here :
http://www.theindependent.sg/study-s...in-mrt-system/
I wonder why they never interview me ? I have given up using mrt and travel by bus . Not worth to put my safety at their risk . I believe the percentage should be higher around 90% . Not only that people have lost faith in KBW & the PAP government . It is time to vote them out. SMRT will sack the local workers and replace them with foreign workers .
LTA, PUB set up committee on tunnel flood prevention
05 Dec 2017 09:40AM (Updated: 05 Dec 2017 11:56AM)
SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and national water agency PUB have formed a committee to regularly look into flood prevention for tunnels, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Tuesday (Dec 5).
The committee will also study some long-term measures beyond the current generation and put them in place, he said.
“The PUB-LTA Standing Committee will institutionalise our lessons and hard-earned experiences, lest they disappear with us at the crematorium,” he said in a speech at the 5th Joint Forum on Infrastructure Maintenance at the Environment Building on Scotts Road.
The committee, set up on the suggestion of former PUB chairman Tan Gee Paw, will ensure future generations do not lose sight of the hazard of floods, Mr Khaw added.
The flooding of the Bishan-Braddell MRT tunnel on Oct 7 was not a failure of engineering, but a “failure of organisational management" at SMRT, he said.
“The Oct 7 incident throws up other issues: HR policies, staff rotation, staff supervision, staff engagement and staff motivation."
While the engineering design is straightforward, regular maintenance, periodic audits, checks and tests make the difference as to whether the anti-flooding mechanism will work as designed, he said.
“The Oct 7 flooding incident will be remembered for a long time. It’d better be,” he said.
In an email to LTA and PUB last month, Mr Tan also suggested including sluice gates in new tunnels, which completely seal the tunnels against flooding, Mr Khaw said.
Such sluice gates exist in tunnel portals in Taipei, where they have to deal with typhoons. “We may never experience typhoons but we will experience heavier rainfall periods, as the typhoon belt shifts southwards and we sit at the periphery of these typhoons,” Mr Tan had said.
While newer train systems are better than their predecessors, they are not perfect, Mr Khaw said on Tuesday. Still, engineers have to try to the best of their ability to make them flawless, he added.
Read more at
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...mittee-9469276
Hello LTA not only just look at the flood , you must also look at other issues besides flooding. Please fix all the problems before another serious accident and or incident happen . The train collision at Joo Koon should be a wake up call to those involved .
MRT tunnel flooding: Incident ’entirely preventable’, says LTA report
05 Dec 2017 12:12PM (Updated: 05 Dec 2017 12:43PM)
SINGAPORE: The Bishan MRT tunnel flooding incident was “entirely preventable”, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA), as it concluded investigations into the Oct 7 incident.
The flooding, which disrupted train services for more than 20 hours, might not have happened had the SMRT team responsible for the maintenance of the Bishan storm water sump pit and pump system carried out their duties, said LTA in a news release on Tuesday (Dec 5) summarising its investigation findings.
The probe revealed that existing flood protection measures at the Bishan tunnel portal were “designed to be more than adequate” to handle the Oct 7 rainfall, the authority said, adding that measures such as a high-capacity sump pit and three complementary high-capacity pumps “have safeguarded the Bishan tunnel portal entrance for over 30 years without incident”.
LTA said that the individual components of the Bishan storm water pump system were not defective and that that there are three possible scenarios why it failed to work:
The lowest “stop” float switch was likely impeded by accumulated silt and sludge in the storm water sump pit, which prevented the storm water sump pumps from activating;
The highest “alarm” float switch, which is wired independently from the other four float switches, could have been impeded by floating debris in the storm water sump pit, which prevented the SMRT Operations Control Centre from being alerted of rising water levels in the pit; and/or
The SMRT crew that conducted corrective maintenance for the storm water pump system on Jul 13 may have failed to switch the pump controls back to “automatic” mode after work was done.
However, whether it was one of these three scenarios or a combination of them that led to the incident “cannot be established definitively”, said LTA, as the exact conditions cannot be recreated following immediate remedial works.
“Nonetheless, all three possible failure scenarios could only arise as a result of a lack of proper maintenance, audits and supervision,” it added.
The release also stated how a separate and independent investigation by SMRT found that team responsible for preventive maintenance works on the sump pit and pump system “had not been carrying out the required works on the purported maintenance dates, and in fact, falsified maintenance records”.
“SMRT has accepted full responsibility for the incident and disciplined the staff found responsible,” said LTA.
Read more at
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...gation-9469598
Now we know how the incident happen . We should also must find out the why . Why there was no supervision from management in the first place ? Where is accountability and responsibility ? Does it mean the management and staff simply bo chap ? Or were the workers given the necessary time and resources to do their job properly or not ? So you still want to vote for PAP ?