In its maiden monthly report on rail performance, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) revealed that MRT rail reliability in Aug 2025 had dipped compared to July 2025.
Of the MRT lines, the Downtown Line (DTL) and North-East Line (NEL) saw the sharpest drop in reliability.
LTA said these were due to one delay on each line that happened in Aug 2025.
According to LTA, Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF) for the MRT network dropped from 1.82 million to 1.74 million train-km — a drop of about 4.4%.
The MKBF is a 12-month moving figure that tracks the average distance a train travels before encountering a delay of more than five minutes.
Here’s a breakdown of the individual MRT lines’ performances:
Source: Land Transport Authority
LTA said the dip in the DTL and NEL figures was due to one delay on each line in Aug 2025, and reflects the “sensitivity of MKBF to small variations in the number of delays above 1 million train-km”.
Despite the overall decrease in MRT rail reliability, the figure remains well above the one million train-kilometre target set in 2017 by then-Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
The reliability of the LRT network also slipped in Aug 2025.
The monthly report showed that the average distance between faults fell from 442,000 car-km in July to 420,000 in August. There were also two service delays lasting more than 30 minutes that month.
Source: Land Transport Authority
In a social media post on Friday (10 Oct), LTA said it will be publishing monthly reports on rail reliability, instead of quarterly ones.
This will give commuters a “clearer picture” of the MRT network’s performance.
Earlier in September, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow announced that LTA would be providing more data to the public to give a “fuller picture” of rail performance.
Moving forward, LTA will also include data for the Thomson–East Coast Line (TEL), which is still in its early stages.
Source: @Waikuku3 on Reddit
Officials cautioned that the figure should be seen in context — newer lines operate shorter distances and face more “teething issues” as systems stabilise. LTA described this period as the “initial engineering bathtub stage”, when early faults are expected.
The TEL’s reliability is expected to improve once the line fully opens in 2026.
Besides MKBF, LTA plans to publish more data points in upcoming reports, such as:
Also read: ‘Give the young minister time’: PSP GE2025 candidate defends Jeffrey Siow over MRT disruptions
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