Fourth train service disruption on the NSL in 2 weeks

By FAILRAIL.sg

For almost an hour, there was no train service from Marina Bay to Marina South Pier station.

At about 7am on yesterday morning, SMRT had tweeted that trains were delayed by 20 minutes between Marina South Pier station and Raffles Place station towards Jurong East.

[NSL]CLEARED: Train service between Marina South Pier and MarinaBay are running normally now. Free bus service and bus bridging have ceased.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) February 3, 2015

This marks the 4th NSL train service disruption in two weeks:

1. Defective third rail disrupted service between Admiralty and Yishun on 19 January 2015. Bus bridging services were activated.
2. Track fault disrupted service between Bishan and Ang Mo Kio on 23 January 2015.
3. Track fault disrupted service between Sembawang and Yio Chu Kang on 30 January 2015. Bus bridging services were activated.
4. Train fault disrupted service between Marina South Pier and City Hall on 3 February 2015. Bus bridging services were activated.

According to Land Transport Authority’s ra-ra on the tightening of train service standards (known as Operating Performance Standards) last month:

The tighter OPS is intended to further improve reliability. LTA had earlier tightened the Frequency of Occurrence (FOO) standard for train disruptions, such that financial penalties may be imposed should train disruptions lasting more than 30 minutes occur more than once on a rail line in any four-week period.

Now there are four incidents in two weeks. Will SMRT be fined or will LTA conveniently forget to fine, just like the NEL breakdown of August 2012? Will commuters and loyal shareholders benefit when SMRT is fined?

Commuters benefit from bus bridging services in the event of a train service disruption. Not fines. Not fare hikes.

In this case, SMRT did activate its bus bridge service according to its tweet.

[NSL] UPDATE: Bus bridging are now available between Marina South Pier and Marina Bay.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) February 2, 2015