Debated in Parliament on 8 Sep 2026.
Assoc Prof Terence Ho asked the Minister for Transport whether the Ministry has assessed the relative merits of periodically tendering MRT operating licences against having dedicated long-term operators for individual MRT lines, taking into account the benefits of contestability as well as continuity in line-specific engineering and maintenance expertise, institutional knowledge and accountability for reliability.
Under the New Rail Financing Framework, the Government owns the rail operating assets and is responsible for asset replacement and upgrading. This allows the rail operators to focus on day-to-day maintenance and provision of reliable rail services.
The shorter duration of the rail licences provides the asset-light operators with sufficient returns, while maintaining market contestability to incentivise good performance from operators. It also allows licence terms to be more frequently updated with new performance standards to improve commuter experience.
Licence arrangements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain fit-for-purpose, including for continuity in engineering and maintenance expertise, institutional knowledge and accountability for reliability, as well as the increasing capital investment requirements that are shared between the Government and the operator.
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