[DanielsaN8]

Quote:

Dec 17, 2011
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew on Friday expressed disappointment with how SMRT handled Thursday's massive shutdown on the North-South Line, calling it an 'extremely serious disruption' that compromised commuters' safety.

He made it clear he wanted no effort spared in getting to the bottom of what has been labelled the worst incident in the 24 years the MRT system has been operating.

'I don't see this as a typical service lapse,' he said. 'This is a very, very serious disruption and better take heed, learn the lessons, improve on the systems.

'Therefore, I've told SMRT chairman Koh Yong Guan when I spoke to him that I hold the board and the management team responsible for making it right.'
A deeper look was also needed at whether there were underlying issues in the rail network that had to be fixed, he said.

Given the five hours of chaos which affected services at 11 stations, he said that the most important thing now was to restore confidence in the reliability of Singapore's rail system.

'I know commuters are angry and concerned, and justifiably so, because their well-being was at risk,' he said, acknowledging the outpouring of public anger in the wake of the breakdown.

Speaking to reporters at Changi Airport last night after cutting short a work trip to Cambodia, he said: 'We need to go down and determine the root cause of this. What is it in the maintenance regime that can be improved, that can be made more robust and comprehensive, so that if this is indeed a preventable incident, how could we do so.'

He said he had spoken to SMRT Board chairman Mr Koh to register the Government's concern over the operator's handling of the incident.

The minister is also convening a panel of relevant experts to do a thorough review of the MRT system, especially the lines run by the SMRT.

Earlier in the afternoon, the SMRT said in a press conference that the disruption had been traced to a misalignment of the electrical connections between four trains and a 40m section of the tracks between Dhoby Ghaut and City Hall stations.

But transport analysts questioned if the trains' higher frequency in recent times to deal with population growth had added to wear and tear.

Mr Lui said he was concerned that commuters stranded in the four affected trains were kept uninformed about what was going on.

There were hardly any updates till more than 30 minutes into the shutdown. Some commuters fainted, lights were intermittent, and one man even used a fire extinguisher to smash a train window for ventilation.

'Especially for the commuters in the affected trains, I do not think that timely and accurate information was given to them as to what was actually happening, how long it would take for them to be rescued, and what SMRT was going to do in order to bring them to safety,' said Mr Lui.

Many other commuters who went into train stations after the disruption complained that announcements of the breakdown were made only in English. Direction signs to bridging bus services were also virtually non-existent.

Mr Lui noted these shortcomings.

'For the other commuters whose travel journeys were affected, I think we can also expect improvement in the information that is put to them, so that they can plan their journeys better.'

Referring to the SMRT press conference earlier in the day, he said he would hold the management to its commitment to improve on the area of communications.

There was also a need to look at whether Standard Operating Procedures on how to deal with passengers in affected trains are 'sufficiently comprehensive' and whether they were adhered to, he said.

He added that he told SMRT's Mr Koh that the 'SMRT board and management must make every effort to get to the bottom of this, to improve on their procedures and how these incidents are managed'.

Mr Lui, who was supposed to return to Singapore on Saturday after attending the Asean Transport Ministers' meetings but cut short his trip, said he followed the events of Thursday night closely from Cambodia.

Also weighing on his mind, he said, was exactly what was behind the spate of rail breakdowns.

From January to October, there were 17 disruptions on the North-South and East-West lines, and eight on the Circle Line.

Mr Lui said: 'Are these a series of isolated, unrelated incidents, or is there a deeper underlying, more systemic issue or issues that we need to tackle?'

Hence, he decided on the panel of experts, including overseas ones, that will be assembled to do a 'thorough' review of the country's MRT system, especially the lines run by SMRT.

Maintenance, incident management and service recovery will be among the issues the panel will look at.

'By next week, I hope to assemble this team and have the appropriate terms of reference for them to work on,' he said.

He hoped there could be some findings by early next year.

Hopefully is not just talk & no action

[lockks]

TALK ONI LAR. still get millions

[UptheToon]

lol. next year smrt want to increase fare again. he will say ''its reasonable and justified.''

[Sai777]

ki lan........


talk only....cheespie get paid to TCSS.

[lousydk]

******* rah tuck yew
you must force and put pressure on that lcp to step down and support it by starting a petition yourself and getting ppl to sign it
like that say the lao auntie wont feel any pressure one

[Arkansaw]

hope he hasn't run out of things to say....for today

[JivBunny]

Ya.

SMRT is making it right.

So this time, they activate the trap card and they dont repeat the same thing again like on Thursday.

[kopi22]

See his face I wanna puke.

They play golf together right??

[joypad2009]

Arkansaw wrote:

hope he hasn't run out of things to say....for today

he has many templates. no worries.

[sonicboyz]

UptheToon wrote:

lol. next year smrt want to increase fare again. he will say ''its reasonable and justified.''

their pattern ish lidat one rahs

[addict951]

Later Saw F*** Hwa tendered liao yall start thread in caps ok?

[gigigigi]

joypad2009 wrote:

he has many templates. no worries.

gotch many many scholars dedicated to making template huan....

[Mancunian2]

and if they continue to mess up,
what are you going to do about it?

[nostalgic84]

If singapore is an organic body, and the mrt are blood vessels pumping blood throughout the body. At the rate they break down, This organic body either die from stroke, or heart attack already

[gigigigi]

addict951 wrote:

Later Saw F*** Hwa tendered liao yall start thread in caps ok?

she tender moi go chop kkj...