MRT checks to get a rethink / Disruptions unavoidable on heavily utilised train system

One key focus will be to spot defects sooner, says Lui Tuck Yew

By Goh Chin Lian, The Straits Times, 10 Apr 2012

THE maintenance regimes of the ageing MRT lines need to be tightened, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said yesterday.

For a start, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will work with the operators of the lines to detect defects earlier and prioritise which parts of the tracks or trains need to undergo maintenance first.

'As the systems age, it is important that we do not hold to the same maintenance regime that we've been using in the past when the systems were newer,' he said in Parliament in reply to MPs.

His comments come a week before a Committee of Inquiry begins its public hearings into two disruptions on the North-South Line last December.

These lasted five to seven hours, affected 221,000 commuters and sparked a public outcry about the MRT's reliability.

Operator SMRT's maintenance regime is expected to come under scrutiny at the hearing. Experts suspect the window of a few hours each morning for checks is inadequate and suggest closing parts of the train network at off-peak periods, like weekends, for a thorough check-up.

SMRT's North-South and East-West lines began operations 25 years ago; the North-East Line, run by SBS Transit, opened nine years ago.

The LTA and both operators will now pay attention to two areas of maintenance, Mr Lui said.

He was responding to the chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, Mr Cedric Foo (Pioneer), who had asked about ways to detect impending failures earlier and to recover faster from them.

One area is to look at the average time between failures of critical components.

This approach could lead to more frequent servicing and closer monitoring of the components, instead of waiting until the next scheduled maintenance, the LTA told The Straits Times.

The other is to consider installing systems that monitor the condition of specified components.

These systems are already in place on the three-year-old Circle Line run by SMRT. They monitor the condition of moving train wheels on the tracks so that those that are defective are prioritised for maintenance, the LTA said.

These measures are on top of existing requirements, like ensuring operators meet performance standards such as the frequency of breakdowns, review of their two-yearly maintenance plans and audit of their safety management system, Mr Lui said.

He also assured Nominated MP Ramasamy Dhinakaran that SBS Transit made regular inspections of its $4.6 billion North-East Line. Mr Dhinakaran had queried its spending on preventive maintenance after steel cables holding overhead power lines in tension snapped last month, causing a 10-hour disruption that left 90,000 commuters stranded.

Mr Lui said that from 2007 to last year,the operator spent about $16 million on preventive maintenance.

A team of 470 maintenance staff checks the tunnels and tracks nightly, looks for track faults with a special vehicle monthly, inspects the overhead power lines every three months and scours the tunnels for cracks and leaks every six months.

The list of measures did not satisfy Ms Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC), who rose twice to press the minister for more improvements.

Mr Lui said some disruptions are unavoidable as the MRT is heavily used. The 500 passengers affected in the latest disruption, a 45-minute breakdown on the East-West MRT Line on Sunday, should be seen in this perspective: Though they were inconvenienced, they form about 0.02 per cent of the 2.7 million trips made daily, he said.

'I think it is unavoidable... We are running thousands of train trips for more than 18 hours a day and I dare say that there is no way you can prevent disruptions from occurring.'

The challenge is to minimise major disruptions that last more than 30 minutes, he said.

'If they do take place,' he said, 'you then have an incident management plan in place that will then try to ameliorate the effects on commuters.'