In a joint effort to enhance rail reliability, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has teamed up with rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit to establish the Rail Reliability Taskforce.
Announced on Friday (19 Sept), the Taskforce aims to “develop and implement immediate solutions to improve rail reliability and joint responses to service disruptions”.
The Taskforce will report its findings and final recommendations to the Acting Minister for Transport, Jeffrey Siow, by the end of 2025.
The Taskforce will oversee three key areas.
First, it will review recent service disruptions to identify components that are nearing the end of their lifespan and require replacement, upgrading, or increased maintenance.
It will also fast-track the renewal of the North East Line’s (NEL) power system and explore ways to improve the signalling systems for both the NEL and Circle Line before their scheduled upgrades.
In addition, the Taskforce will conduct comprehensive technical audits of critical systems, assessing asset conditions, maintenance processes, operational protocols, and redundancy measures.
These audits will include a focus on staff training and competency to ensure high operational standards are maintained.
Finally, to minimise disruptions during service delays, the Taskforce will review and refine service recovery processes.
The goal is to improve recovery speeds while maintaining commuter safety.
The Taskforce will also reassess training programmes to ensure that staff are fully equipped to manage service recovery during incidents.
To support these efforts, the government has allocated an additional S$1 billion over the next five years to strengthen rail capabilities, boost technology adoption, and invest in skills training for the workforce.
Also read: SMRT hit with 2 back-to-back train disruptions on EWL & TEL in span of 8 hours
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Featured image by MS News.