Disruption seemed to be better managed, says Minister Lui
Mar 16, 2012
Compared to the train service breakdowns in December last year, yesterday's North East Line (NEL) disruption - which was due to faults discovered before the train services began - seemed to be better managed, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew.
SBS Transit's larger fleet of buses, which could be activated to ferry affected customers, and the smaller number of stations involved helped alleviate the situation, said Mr Lui.
So did the lessons learnt from the disruptions on the North South Line - operated by SMRT - on Dec 15 and 17 last year, which resulted in the two train operators working closer together.
"Even if there's a situation that affects lines run by SMRT ... we could see an improvement on the situation compared to the past," said Mr Lui, who was speaking to reporters outside Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station (picture) where he was assessing the situation.
There were announcements informing commuters about the disruption, unlike in December when announcements were made only on the affected lines, he noted. Since then, SMRT and SBS Transit have also come together to allow free travel on bus services that serve affected MRT stations during a disruption, in addition to the bus bridging services.
During yesterday's disruption, commuters could travel on SBS Transit's 124 or SMRT's 190 services for free - but commuters were generally unaware of this, Mr Lui said. "We need to do a better job to make sure that people know that there are other services that are also free," he said.
Mr Lui pledged that the authorities and the operators would carry out a thorough check on the entire NEL for symptoms "that may point towards other problematic areas along the line".
But he added: "The feedback and the update that I have gotten from my people in the operation centre is that they believe that it is confined only to the stretch between Outram and HarbourFront."
I think Tuck Yew is missing the point.
Yes there is definitely an improvement the ways the transport operator handle this incident but the question is, WHY IS THERE A DISRUPTION IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Now MRT disruption seen to be a norm these days and SBS Transit and SMRT must explain why this is so.
Lack of maintenance? Cost cutting? Lousy design?
Is there anymore underlying problem that are waiting to disrupt the system and are all angles covered to prevent future disruptions?
To me all these checks should have been done long ago when the first disruption happened. I guess they are still trying to save on the maintenance, worst still they don’t know what underlying problems are there in the system.
This is what you get for putting “yes man” who only care about profit as CEOs.
Tuck Yew is going to F them for giving him bad publicity now.
