Complaints on Lapses in Real-time Updates for MRT Breakdowns

Mr Speaker, Sir, I have the honour of taking the very first Parliamentary Question under your watch. Let me also join others in congratulating you. I am quite sure you will settle down in your new responsibilities much quicker than I do in my transport portfolio.

On 28 June at 4.52 pm, North-South Line trains lost radio communication with the trackside signalling system and came to a sudden halt. The North-South Line has switched to a new signalling system which has been undergoing full-day testing since 28 May, that is, about four months ago. The East-West Line is, however, still on the old signalling system, except for the new stretch between Joo Koon and Tuas West. So, I hope Members can visualise the complications: North-South Line, new signal; East-West Line, old signal; but one part is on new signal. So, life is interesting for us.

The fault on 28 June was due to human error by a Thales engineering team installing radio devices for the East-West Line re-signalling project. The error was realised almost immediately and the fault was cleared by isolating the East-West Line radio network from the North-South Line. However, restarting the trains took some time. As this occurred during the afternoon peak hour, many commuters were affected and their journeys delayed. Normal North-South Line services were progressively restored by 6.45 pm. The Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) and Thales have since tightened their work processes to ensure that this does not happen again.

Basically, I told them, "Please suspend all major East-West Line testing until North-South Line has stabilised". I reminded them that I am a heart patient and I do not want further shocks to my system.

During the incident, SMRT deployed 500 additional staff to affected North-South Line stations to manage crowds, render assistance and disseminate information to commuters. Signs were also put up on other travel options, such as free bus services, and more than 3,200 announcements were made in stations and trains to keep commuters updated. Real-time updates were also broadcasted via social media, websites and MyTransport.SG mobile app. These measures were activated as part of the rail operators' contingency plans.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) monitors all disruptions closely and holds rail operators accountable for any lapses in providing timely and accurate information to commuters. LTA will use the commuter feedback from the 28 June incident to enhance the management of service disruptions by the rail operators.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I would also like to congratulate you. Many of my residents were inconvenienced by the 28 June incident and also the subsequent few train service interruptions. I have three supplementary questions.

First, how is the progress of the re-signalling project? Second, how long more before we can see it stabilising, so that residents would not have to be inconvenienced, especially during peak hours? Last, but not least, can we have more bus services that bring residents to the city or work directly, such as Bus 805E, so that when there is a breakdown, at least they do not have to, like a lot of my residents, fight their way to take the shuttle service to go to Khatib MRT station and later find out that there is no train service?

Fortunately, for the re-signalling project for North-South Line, I think we are already entering the last leg, the last phase of testing. The progress has been much better than I had originally feared.

The re-signalling project is a very complicated project. I remember during the Committee of Supply (COS) debate, I shared with the House the feedback that we got from London Underground. They went through similar difficulties when they re-signalled their Jubilee Line. They were the first one who warned us, "expect problems, expect troubles, expect yourself to be public enemy No 1".

I brought their painful experience to this House and have been trying very hard to prepare the ground on all the various things that we may have to go through. Precisely because of the London Underground's experience, we changed very substantially our original schedule as well as approach to doing this re-signalling project. We decided to do a lot more testing during engineering hours before we start launching testing that involves passengers inside the trains. The original plan was actually to start the full testing of the North-South Line much earlier than 28 May, which was our final decision. We decided to change it and did a lot more testing during engineering hours when the trains were without passengers.

It was only after we have repeated testings and discovered many of the glitches and fixed them and were satisfied with the software before we start launching it to passenger service. Even then, we take a step-by-step approach − trying out, first of all, during the last hour before service ends and, after that, during Sundays when the passenger load is a lot lighter. Finally we decided that, "Yes, let's start doing this full service testing". We picked 28 May obviously because of the June holidays. But unfortunately, despite all these preparations, there were still delays. But over time, because of these various efforts that we have put in, the picture is getting better. The system is stabilising. For the North-South Line, the number of delays due to re-signalling peaked at about 20. This was in the month of May. It has since declined to only six last month and continues to decline.

I am fairly confident that the original timeline to complete the re-signalling of the North-South Line before year end could even be earlier. I am pushing them to get it out before December, meaning within the next few weeks. We have about 10 weeks left to December. I see no reason why we cannot deliver on this.

The software is stabilising. The new software that we put in since 14 July has been very promising, but there are still a few hardware problems. Some of the equipment which are on the trains are still causing us some difficulties. It is not significant, but nevertheless, they are glitches which we have to fix. Some of the glitches are: the doors are not opening or synchronising with the platform screen doors, or the trains exceed by a certain distance when it stops at the station.

I hope Members appreciate the complications of this project because, unlike a new line, let us say, Downtown Line 3, where there is also a new signalling system. It is a greenfield project, whereas this one, we are talking about an existing functioning line and we cannot close it down just to do testing. That is why it is so complicated.

A further complication which the Thales engineers have explained is that because this is a 30-year-old system and, over the years, we have bought new trains. So, altogether today, we have four different generations of trains running on the North-South, East-West Lines. And for the re-signalling, every train has to be completely rewired. Each train is a little bit like a human being. It has its own idiosyncrasies and we need plenty of time to calibrate and recalibrate. These are the great difficulties that all metros around the world experience when they need to re-signal. But versus the experience of London Underground, honestly, for us who are involved in this project, we thought we have done much, much better than I originally envisaged.

London took one full year before they stabilised. For ours, we started in earnest since 28 May. If we can complete it by the end of November, it would be quite an achievement. But do remember, for the East-West Line, we have yet to start full-scale re-signalling. We have been installing the equipment and doing some testing during engineering hours. I hope the experience that we have picked up on the North-South Line should be able to be put to use when we extend the re-signalling to the East-West Line, and that we do not need such a long period to stabilise the East-West Line. But we shall see.

As for bus services during disruptions, I think the honest answer is that a bus system is not as effective as trains during peak hours for the sheer difference in capacity. One train is equivalent to so many busloads of passenger capacity, and every two minutes, there is a new train coming. So, when there is an accumulation of delays, you can imagine we will need tens of thousands of buses to move or to transfer all the train passengers, and it is not easy.

As for the Member's specific request for direct line bus to the Central Business District, we will take a look.

First, I would like to ask the Minister whether he sets specific targets for the improvement of train service from the North-South Line, North-East Line, as well as other lines, because of different circumstances, as what the Minister mentioned.

Secondly, did the Minister anticipate, in the first place, the problems or the complications of the re-signalling system?

Thirdly, I remember the Minister was quite optimistic when he took over and said that the MRT system will be improved over time. I would like to ask him whether or not he has reached his original broad objective for the public transport system, with respect to MRT services.

Lastly, I would like to ask him: what can commuters expect in the future in terms of train services? How long more do they have to endure this inconvenience? How long more before they can expect to see the light of the day and to have improvement and better efficiency in the train services?

I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Let me put this thing in the right perspective. We are actually undergoing or carrying out two very different and separate missions.

The first mission is to raise the reliability of all existing lines. The second mission is to do new projects, such as replacement of the signalling system, such as extending the Downtown Line to new stretches of the Downtown Line called Downtown Line 3. Both are very different missions and we should not conflate the two.

On the first one of raising reliability, we are making very good progress. Reliability is measured by Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF). What does it stand for? The average distance in kilometres (km) travelled by a train before you hit a delay of more than five minutes. And that is the global international standard of measuring reliability.

Mr Low talked about my being optimistic when I first took over this job almost exactly two years ago. I remain optimistic. Yes, I have set certain targets. I said I shall accomplish this job within four years and we are on track to accomplishing this project within four years. We are two years now. We are halfway through this journey and the MKBF improvements are significant and drastic. For a long time, our MKBF could not even exceed 200,000 km. I set specific targets. Mr Low asked whether the Minister has a target. I do. And I set those targets and recorded it in Hansard in this House.

At that time, the best MKBF data was experienced by Taipei. It was 800,000 km. So, it was perhaps even reckless on my part to say, "Let us close the gap with Taipei". And, therefore, I set the MKBF target of 800,000 km within four years. But for a long time, we could not even cross 200,000 km. I had split the 800,000 km target into: (a) target for this year, 300,000 km, (b) next year, 400,000 km, (c) in 2019 and 2020, 800,000 km.

What is our situation today? We have exceeded this year's target. In fact, we are almost 400,000 km, which is the target for next year. That is why I was confident enough to say, let me now raise the target from 800,000 km to 1,000,000 MKBF. That is ambitious, optimistic, but I have reason to be confident and I think even if we cannot reach it, we will be quite close to it. And that is the situation today.

Remember it is a multi-year project. Why is it a multi-year project? Because part of the efforts in improving reliability is to replace the very old assets. The North-South, East-West Lines, 30 years old, are almost at the end of their economic life. That is why we have to progressively replace the assets. But replacing the assets when we only have three hours every day, which is at midnight, takes a long time. For a system like the North-South, East-West Lines, there are six critical core systems. Sleepers, third rail, signalling, trains, power supply, track circuits. Each one has to be replaced before you can hope to improve on the reliability. Sleepers we have completed last year. Third rail, I am doing an event tomorrow to celebrate the completion of third rail. Two down, four more to go. And the third one, signalling. The North-South Line, I have explained to Members that we will complete it before December. But East-West Line's signalling has yet to be done. So, basically, it is a multi-year effort, we are halfway there. It is a cup half full.

Next year, I will top it up further and I am fairly confident we will be able to deliver this mission.

Did we anticipate the re-signalling problem? We did. It was in this House at COS when I explained the problem on the London Underground.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I speak as the executive secretary of the National Transport Workers' Union. As the Minister is aware, hundreds of rail engineers and technicians work hard every day, every night, to upgrade the MRT system. Sometimes, we do not even have the three hours that he spoke of at night. I hope to have the Minister's assurance that the Ministry in pursuing the high standards of MRT operations, the very high standards that he has set for the operators, that the Minister can continue to assure that the well-being of our rail workers will continue to be a top priority of the Ministry.

Yes, I do. I spend a lot of time with our troops on the ground in the trenches within the tunnels, day time, night time, each time there is something to celebrate, I go down to celebrate with them, buy them some durians, buy them some curry puffs. Little, small gestures, but I think it makes some difference to them as well as to me because I want to satisfy myself that people are not lazing around, giving excuses, but actually putting all their heart and soul into their projects – and they do. The reason why I spend time, and recently I have a little argument with the media, was because I feel for my people. They put so much effort, heart, sweat and tears into their project. I think the minimum they hope is that people will cheer them on rather than jeer at them. Because it is a multi-year effort, it is like a war. Fighting a multi-year war, I think staff morale is key. If we are able to keep staff morale high, I think the success possibility will be high. It is so easy to feel discouraged and say let us quit. But we have a job to do and we will deliver.