Desmond Kuek : NSL and EWL achieved best recorded performance in 29 years

SMRT chief executive officer Desmond Kuek has announced that the North-South (NSL) and East-West (EWL) MRT lines achieved the best-recorded performance in the 29-year history of the two lines.

He said that the trains had travelled 144,000 train-km before breakdown on October.

Mr Desmond, speaking at the first Singapore Rail Technology Conference which was held on Friday (Nov 18) at the InterContinental Singapore, also said that the Circle Line (CCL), which began operations in 2009, has reached 233,000 train-km before breakdown of more than 5 minutes.

Nevertheless, Mr Kuek said that the 2018 target is 400,000 train-km. Therefore, it was still far from it since the breakdown of the rail that happened currently, which was reiterated by Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament last week.

The conference organised by SMRT, was attended by more than 200 delegates, including representatives from international metro operators. Minister for Education (Schools) and Second Minister for Transport Mr Ng Chee Meng was also present at the conference.

Mr Desmond said, “We are working hard to achieve this, and are encouraged by the steady progress already made.”

He also pointed to efforts SMRT makes such as the ongoing renewal of the NSL and EWL. He also noted the  upgrading of its professional engineering and technical workforce.

Land Transport Authority (LTA), in its latest update of the rail reliability on 8 November, stated that there was one disruption per 158,000 train-km travelled for the entire MRT network here in the first six months of 2016.

It noted that the EWL was the worst performing line in 2016. It experienced four major breakdowns of more than 30 minutes in the first half of the year.

However, even LTA’s record of the service delays may not show the actual picture as TOC has reported earlier in 2014 that its statistics on the number of train service delays exceeding 30 minutes is understated, as compared to a public database that has been recording reported train service disruptions since 2000.

Taking for example, on 14 November, there was a service disruption along NSL, from Yee Tee to Jurong East MRT Interchange with no public announcement made on the disruption. It is unknown if LTA recorded this service disruption, given that SMRT did not report on the matter.