By Failrailsg.appspot.com
Only three incidents in 2012?
Referencing to the article on Today, “North-South, East-West MRT lines could be partially closed up to 12pm on Sundays to facilitate works” as well as two other articles on the replacement of sleepers for the tracks,
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/smrt-step-sleeper-replacement
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/smrt-steps-up-sleepers-replacement/674584.html
In the article, the authorities reported that there were only three incidents in 2012 that caused a delay of more than 30 minutes. But according to the site’s recorded observations, there were at least 70 such delays in 2012 and 10 in 2013 so far.
To verify the above information, interested readers can visit the website [http://failrailsg.appspot.com/] and click on the Search button on the top navigation bar.
In the Search form, type in the year ‘2012’ or ‘2013’ in the Date field and sort the Duration (minutes) column in descending order. To get a copy of the data in spreadsheet format, click on the Data button on the top navigation bar. To see the charts, visit [http://failrailsg.appspot.com/line.html].
To highlight the major delays in 2012, all of which caused more than 2 hours of delay and the rail lines operated by SMRT:
- CCL delay on 31 December 2012 – http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20130101-392834.html
- EWL delay on 2 February 2012 – http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20120203-325617.html
- CCL delay on 25 October 2012 – http://sg.news.yahoo.com/circle-line-cable-issues-stymie-smrt–lta.html
- Bukit Panjang LRT delay on 22 April 2012 – http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20120422-341316.html
- CCL delay on 18 April 2012 – http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/1065776/the_human_sardine_caused_by_mrt_breakdown.html
- EWL delay on 16 April 2012 – http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20120417-340279.html
- CCL delay on 8 Jan 2012 – http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120109-320623.html
- NSL delay on 16 April 2012 – http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20120417-340279.html
Uncommon occurrence of rail cracks?
With the rail crack yesterday afternoon, that makes two rail cracks in 3 weeks. Furthermore, both rail cracks occurred on the same stretch of the NSL between City Hall/Raffles Place and Bishan interchanges. The rail crack on April 29 occurred between Somerset and Orchard stations while the rail crack on May 18 occurred at Braddell station.
SMRT’s press release on May 14 explained away the April 29 rail crack as an uncommon occurrence:
A series of ultrasonic tests aimed at ensuring rail integrity is conducted regularly every four months, in addition to weekly visual inspections by manual patrols. Rail cracks are relatively uncommon and in the past 26 years, there have been a total of 25 incidents. In the last 10 years, we have recorded an average of less than one rail flaw occurrence a year.
(page 3 of SMRT’s press release)
Unfortunately for SMRT, reality hits home 4 days later. This reminds the public of a certain Minister’s remark on unusually heavy rainfall once every 50 years. It just shows that those on top doesn’t know any better. If the rail crack is so rare, shouldn’t LTA order an investigation and the findings be shared with the public in a timely manner? The public would not want another major disruption to happen with a COI billed at $10 million.
