MRT issues?

[MSPeconomist]

I've been reading about the two recent days with MRT shutdowns and massive delays. Are there ongoing problems? Are there equipment shortages? Will weekend and evening service be reduced for maintenance?

Also, is there a resulting shortage of taxis in Singapore?

[LionCity]

I've been reading about the two recent days with MRT shutdowns and massive delays. Are there ongoing problems? Are there equipment shortages? Will weekend and evening service be reduced for maintenance?

Also, is there a resulting shortage of taxis in Singapore?

Have not tried the MRT since the breakdown. Probably is generally ok otherwise there will be more buzz over the internet and I think they probably will get better based on the "live exercises"
they were having in the past week. I took the train on the morning of the day of the breakdown and felt unusual excessive vibrations in a relatively new train carriage. Based on my limited experience as a maintenance engineer in the past, I felt that something will break down sooner or later.

I feel that with better condition monitoring devices and software, a more reliable system can help to reduce the amount of downtime. This means spending more on maintenance and service. Although, I will qualify that I do have quite limited knowledge of the subway maintenance issues and points.

[CarbonMan]

I've been reading about the two recent days with MRT shutdowns and massive delays. Are there ongoing problems? Are there equipment shortages? Will weekend and evening service be reduced for maintenance?

Also, is there a resulting shortage of taxis in Singapore?

After 3 days of disruption lasting 2-6 hours, the system seems to have settled down. Preliminary reports so far indicate that the cause was a series of damaged claws that held the third rail (power) up which in turn damaged the power collectors on the trains (I hope I have summarized it accurately!). What caused the damaged claws is still not fully known though the have narrowed it to areas where dampeners on the tracks are installed to reduce noise. These areas have also seen a large amount of new construction in the past few years - perhaps the pounding dislodged some parts which cause a domino set of problems to occur. All this, my speculation!

They did some very thorough maintenance and checking last weekend so, touchwood, we hope to have a fully functioning rail system over the holidays. Otherwise, the retail business downtown will want to have a piece of SMRT.

This time of the year is the rainy season and of course it's the shopping season as well. Even without the SMRT problem, taxis are usually on short supply during the peak periods. The only mitigating factor is that they have just increased the taxi fares and there's the usual boycott period by some commuters.

[9V-JKL]

What baffles me is that the MRT is shutdown every night for a few hours for MAINTENANCE. Track inspection is also part of the process (saw it on a documentary once).

So how could they have missed it?

[CarbonMan]

What baffles me is that the MRT is shutdown every night for a few hours for MAINTENANCE. Track inspection is also part of the process (saw it on a documentary once).

So how could they have missed it?

Sometimes, if you're looking for it, you don't see it.

Each night, they only have a 5-hour window to do maintenance. According to Wiki, there's a total of 138km of tracks in Singapore. There are a couple of things they need to do - inspection, planned maintenance and rectification. I don't know how much resources SMRT or SBS Transit puts into their engineering crew to do what they need to do - from the results we have observed last week, it doesn't seem to be sufficient.

[LionCity]

Sometimes, if you're looking for it, you don't see it.

Each night, they only have a 5-hour window to do maintenance. According to Wiki, there's a total of 138km of tracks in Singapore. There are a couple of things they need to do - inspection, planned maintenance and rectification. I don't know how much resources SMRT or SBS Transit puts into their engineering crew to do what they need to do - from the results we have observed last week, it doesn't seem to be sufficient.

If you think it will not go wrong, chances you will not find something wrong EVEN if something is wrong.

Noted that the CEO and COO of SMRT were from the DFS (Retail industry), it has gotten me a bit concerned. I was doing technical management and worked under Bosses who were not technical....the non-technical bosses were more concerned about cost as they don't understand technical. Spent too much time explaining and justifying why we need to spend money on technical issues...I was virtually spent and lost my temper on a daily basis. Better to work for a Boss who understand the technical issues. I hope that was not the case in SMRT.

The London Tube Commissioner was paid GBP 337,000 versus SGD 1,800,000 paid to the CEO of SMRT. The total tube track is around 408 km and the system probably double to four times the age of the SMRT's System. Maybe we should expect the SMRT to at mathematically 30 times more reliable than the Tube based on the multiplication of CEO's pay X Age Factor X Length of Tracks .

[Kyo]

I'd actually rate SMRT's network at least 30x reliable than the London Tube, if not more.

Have you seen how often the tracks there are not in good service? A heck of a lot... first this line, then that line... how often do you hear that about SMRT?

And no, it doesn't mean I think the head honcho should be paid 30x more.

[eriond]

Lol, the London Tube...

Red signals (Piccadilly), track maintenance (Jubilee/Metropolitan), not ending at designated terminus (Northern), poor weather, strike, signal failure (Piccadilly), poor interchange design (Earl's Court), escalators/lifts that do not work (King's Cross) are just a few instances the tube affected my trips; and I do not even live in London.

Not forgetting to "mind the gap between the train and the platform edge"...

[CarbonMan]

I have to agree with Kyo on his last statement that Singapore's system is far superior than London's tube in terms of availability and ride comfort. Their system fails so often that they have to keep reminding people on the PA that the systems are up when they are up. Some of their trains, I hate to say it, were probably inspired by JRR Tolkien's Hobbit. One can hardly stand up straight on the sides of the train without hitting the head on the ceiling.

But I can't blame them, and I have to give them due credit, for being able to run a system as efficiently as it is, when it is more than a hundred years old. It's network of lines is excellent, there're very few places in central London (even slightly outside of the city area) that I can't get to on the Tube.

From an investor's point of view, LionCity, SMRT's net profit this year was S$161 million. The CEO makes 1% of it. I leave it to the shareholders to decide if that's value. London Tube on the other hand continues to receive a subsidy of GBP 1 billion a year from the government to keep it running. I can understand some of the anger commuters have against SMRT's CEO but we cannot simply just hentam-lah!

[LionCity]

[
From an investor's point of view, LionCity, SMRT's net profit this year was S$161 million. The CEO makes 1% of it. I leave it to the shareholders to decide if that's value. London Tube on the other hand continues to receive a subsidy of GBP 1 billion a year from the government to keep it running. I can understand some of the anger commuters have against SMRT's CEO but we cannot simply just hentam-lah! [/QUOTE]

Interesting points. Having heard the arguments, yes the SMRT is more reliable and I very much accept that point. As a shareholder, my vote is that she is overpaid. Now that it has been stated that London Tube is so antiquated and the lines are more, obviously the job is easier for the CEO of SMRT.

We also found the trains have been vandalised twice in the spate of months due to a lack of security and not learning from the first incident. Wondering who have been sitting on their hands and putting us at risk from Terroism.

As a citizen, the bus availability has been cut down due to MRT Lines. COEs for cars are more than 50k just for a sedan. We have more ERPs too. Previously, I only paid 11K for the COE five years ago.The amount of choices are becoming less available to the guy in the street. The poor planning for the large population growth in the past five years have not been built into the transport particularly SMRT planning leading to more squeeze to the point where the PM even apologised for it. I think with the lack of availability and over crowding, the citizen should naturally rightly expect a much higher standard of performance from highly paid Ministers and CEOs.

However, I also do accept that we should not be whinning all the time. It is important to put sensible and reasonable pressure to make sure that the problems are sorted out. As a maintenance engineer in my previous life, I also can't help having a nagging there are issues on the maintenance side of things but again this is just a feeling and not a fact.

I am glad the PM and the Transport Minister are taking the point seriously to prevent a further deterioration of the issue and make transportation more user friendly.

Cheers.

[RHG]

Actually, its more of a reminder that certain operations should NEVER EVER BE PRIVATISED nor should there be a mixture of government and business operations..

From newspaper reports,damage appear to occur on the first line that the MRT started operations on around 1988. I distinctly remember as i was on the first train as the then PM. The only reason why this would occur is lack of a proper regular inspection/maintenance program which points to costs being shaved,profit maximisation.

[jhm]

From an investor's point of view, LionCity, SMRT's net profit this year was S$161 million. The CEO makes 1% of it. I leave it to the shareholders to decide if that's value. London Tube on the other hand continues to receive a subsidy of GBP 1 billion a year from the government to keep it running. I can understand some of the anger commuters have against SMRT's CEO but we cannot simply just hentam-lah!

Comparing the tube to the MRT is like comparing apples to oranges, e.g.

* Around 250-300 stations on the tube compared to MRT's 70 or so
* 2-3 more pax/day on the tube
* 4 times more track on the tube
* 150 years old compared to MRT's 25 years
etc

[CarbonMan]

Comparing the tube to the MRT is like comparing apples to oranges, e.g.

* Around 250-300 stations on the tube compared to MRT's 70 or so
* 2-3 more pax/day on the tube
* 4 times more track on the tube
* 150 years old compared to MRT's 25 years
etc

I agree and differ to the Londoner; two different beasts altogether. However, I made my comparison of the boss's pay from an investor's point of view.

[B727]

Thankfully, I only had to take the MRT once last weekend to do some shopping on Sunday.

Was gonna do it earlier in the day, but the way my Sunday mornings go, ended up doing it closer to noon instead.

A good thing since the concierge reminded me on the way out that train services only started after 10:30 am! Thankfully, things seemed pretty normal by the time we were running all over Singapore on the MRT

[jammed]

to provide 1st person verification to OP's poser, after my return to SG on Tue, i have taken at least 2 to 3 rides on the MRT every day, involving, Circle Line, East West Line and North South Line, and they have been fuss free as before (well, my benchmark was when i last return in Sep).

I just came back from lunch hour pre-Xmas kind of traffic through Somerset, City Hall, Bugis and then Clementi. Usual crowds, but I will not say its any slower.