MRT incidents have hurt public confidence: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — The tunnel flooding near Bishan MRT station and the collision at Joo Koon MRT station should not have happened and these recent incidents have "hurt public confidence a lot", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on Sunday (Nov 19).

Reiterating the government's commitment to improve the public transport system, Mr Lee said there has been progress, but also "setbacks". 

"Last month, we had the tunnel flooding in Bishan... and the Joo Koon collision, (these) loom large in the public consciousness," said Mr Lee, who was speaking at the People's Action Party (PAP) convention.  

Nevertheless, he stressed the need to "learn the right lessons from (the incidents), get to the root of the problems and put things right". 

Mr Lee, who is the PAP's secretary-general, also threw his "full support" behind Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, whom he described as having one of "the toughest jobs" in the Cabinet. 

"I know Comrade Khaw Boon Wan and his team have been working very hard, day and night, tackling the issues," said Mr Lee, who urged the public to give the same support to Mr Khaw and his team.

In his speech at the convention, Mr Khaw, who is the PAP's chairman, also referred to the MRT woes. Adding that he had taken the train to the event, he said commuters came forward to shake his hand, and he promised to "finish the good work" started. 

Mr Lee expressed hope that the train delays "should go away" in a year following the full completion of the signalling system upgrade on the North-South East-West Lines. 

"We are upgrading the old signalling system on the North-South Line, ... (it is) almost  done, so residents in the North should see the benefits soon. We will then have to do the East-West Line, which will inevitably cause some delays," he said, urging commuters to give the transport team "the time and space" to solve the nagging rail issues. 

On Oct 7, some 250,000 commuters were affected when train tunnels at Bishan MRT were flooded. It was later revealed that maintenance records for the anti-flood system at Bishan MRT had been falsified, with no actual works having been conducted for over a year leading up to the incident.

In another recent incident last Wednesday, 36 people were injured in a train collision at Joo Koon, which occured as a result of a faulty train transiting between the old and new signalling systems.

Mr Lee said: "Improving train reliability is a very complicated problem, the technical issues such as resignalling are already complex."  

The task was made more difficult given the urgency to deliver consistent results, he said.

"We need to strengthen the organisation to deliver consistent high performance, reinforce the engineering and maintenance teams, maintain morale and raise standards, and that involves people... they are delicate issues and take time to sort out," he said. 

Mr Lee reiterated his belief that Singapore has a "first class public transport system". 

The Republic is among the four best in the world when it came to train reliability — the others are Hong Kong, Taipei and Los Angeles. 

"We are not the best, but we will get better," said Mr Lee.