Christopher Tan criticizes mrt breakdown following decade-long renewal program

The severe disruption on Singapore's East-West Line, now entering its third day on 27 September 2024, has drawn significant public scrutiny, including sharp criticism from Christopher Tan, a retired Senior Correspondent for The Straits Times. In a LinkedIn post on Thursday, Tan questioned why the breakdown occurred so soon after the completion of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar rail renewal program, which had been touted as enhancing the reliability of Singapore’s rail system. The incident, triggered by a train derailment, has caused extensive damage to the track and infrastructure, and may affect over one million commutes by the time services are fully restored. The disruption began on 25 September when a first-generation Kawasaki Heavy Industries train suffered a critical malfunction near Dover station. A defective axle box caused a bogie—an undercarriage assembly that supports the wheels—to derail, leading to extensive damage over a 1.6km stretch of track between Clementi and Dover stations. According to an earlier Facebook post by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the derailment resulted in 34 rail breaks and damaged critical infrastructure, including power cables and point machines. The damage triggered a power trip that disrupted train services along one of Singapore's oldest and busiest rail lines. In his LinkedIn post, Tan noted that this was the third major rail disruption in two weeks, following incidents on the Circle Line, and warned that this could become one of the most disruptive MRT breakdowns in Singapore’s history. "It could go down as an MRT incident with the biggest adverse impact—over one million commutes may be affected by the time it is completely resolved," Tan wrote. He pointed out that the breakdown occurred just under a year after the LTA marked the completion of its decade-long rail renewal program on 25 October 2023, which had included significant investments in core systems such as signaling, track circuits, and power supply. Tan’s critique focused on the fact that SMRT had placed an aging train into operation, noting that the train involved was over 35 years old. While SMRT pointed to the age of the train, Tan dismissed this as a weak defense, arguing that metros worldwide, such as Hong Kong's MTR, operate trains that are even older, provided they are well-maintained. "If these are well-maintained, they can last longer than 35 years," Tan said, adding that it was SMRT's responsibility to ensure that any train in operation is deemed trackworthy, regardless of its age. In his post, Tan called for full transparency from the authorities, questioning why the incident occurred despite SMRT’s use of predictive maintenance systems designed to prevent such failures. "We have been told SMRT now practices preventive and predictive maintenance... So, what happened to that fateful train?" Tan asked, urging LTA and SMRT to conduct a thorough investigation and provide full disclosure to restore public confidence in the rail system. He emphasized that transparency and accountability are essential, given the significant public investment in the renewal program. The rail renewal program, completed in October 2023, was Singapore's largest rail improvement effort to date, costing S$2.6 billion. It involved extensive upgrades to six core systems on the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL), including replacing track circuits, power supply systems, and the introduction of new trains equipped with condition monitoring systems designed to detect and address faults before they led to major disruptions. In its October 2023 press release, LTA had also announced the acquisition of new trains to progressively replace the aging fleet of first, second, and third-generation trains on the North-South and East-West Lines. These new trains, equipped with condition monitoring systems, are part of ongoing efforts to upgrade the fleet and prevent disruptions by detecting and addressing faults before they cause significant failures. As of the 2023 announcement, 26 of these new trains had arrived in Singapore, with seven already in passenger service and the rest expected to be operational by 2026. Despite earlier hopes to restore partial services by Friday, LTA and SMRT confirmed on 26 September that the disruption would persist into a third day, with authorities now aiming to restore full services by Monday, 30 September. As repair efforts continue, commuters are advised to stay updated on announcements from SMRT and LTA regarding service restoration timelines.