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SMRT, SBS Transit fined S$1.1m

SINGAPORE — Train operators SMRT and SBS Transit will be fined a total of S$1.1 million by the authorities for five incidents in the past year. These include a safety breach in December — which had not been publicly reported — at Ulu Pandan depot where SMRT staff carried out work on a track with electricity still running through it, exposing them to the risk of electrocution.

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SINGAPORE — Train operators SMRT and SBS Transit will be fined a total of S$1.1 million by the authorities for five incidents in the past year. These include a safety breach in December — which had not been publicly reported — at Ulu Pandan depot where SMRT staff carried out work on a track with electricity still running through it, exposing them to the risk of electrocution.

The operators have two weeks to appeal against the fines and the sum will be donated to the Public Transport Fund to help needy families with transport fares, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said.

When contacted yesterday, SMRT — which was responsible for four of the incidents — said it will not appeal against the penalties, while SBS Transit would not say whether it intended to do so.

Apart from the five incidents, the LTA also looked into two cases on the North East Line (NEL) — run by SBS Transit — where bolts used to fasten cantilever arms did not work due to corrosion. However, it found that the bolts were maintained according to requirements and the corrosion was impossible to detect visually.

In all, SMRT will be fined S$860,000 for rail defects on the Circle Line that came to light in November, the safety breach at Ulu Pandan depot, its handling of a trackside fire at Newton Station in February (which incurred the highest fine of S$300,000), and for launching only three trains — instead of the scheduled four — from Bukit Panjang LRT Depot in July.

SBS Transit will be fined S$250,000 for a service disruption on the NEL which occurred on June 19, and saw stranded commuters having to wait in the haze for shuttle bus services.

Then, passengers were stranded on a stalled train for more than 30 minutes. Services were also disrupted between Woodleigh and Punggol stations for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. About 54,900 passengers were affected in total.

The LTA said that the fine quantum depends on the severity of the incident and factors such as the number of passengers affected, the response by the operators as well as whether the problems were within their control. Past penalties are also used as benchmark.

So far, the largest fine meted out to the operators was the S$2 million that SMRT had to pay for two major disruptions — the worst in terms of scale and duration — in December 2011.

According to the Rapid Transit Systems (RTS) Act, a licensed public transport operator can be fined up to S$1 million per incident, if the operator fails to comply with the operating performance standards and other regulatory requirements.

In response to the fines, SMRT said it “takes passenger and employee safety seriously, and has reviewed the protocols”. It has also improved staff training to “ensure that the lessons from these events are reflected in our quest to continually improve our operational performance”, said its Director for Media and Marketing Communications Alina Boey.

Ms Boey said that since the fire at Newton station, it has been working closely with the LTA and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to re-evaluate fire plans and standing operational procedures for each station. The SCDF will be conducting a “thorough walkthrough” of the stations to review the newly implemented process enhancements, and regular exercises will be held to “ensure a high level of operational currency and competency”, she added.

She also said that SMRT’s resources to manage defective rail incidents have been expanded to expedite the replacement and incident management procedures. Communication channels have also been improved.

SBS Transit Senior Vice-President (Corporate Communications) Tammy Tan said that, following the June 19 incident on the NEL, it has further tightened its operating procedures to ensure that detrainment is strictly carried out within 30 minutes of any service stoppage. It has also stepped up checks and maintenance of all rail guard switches.

“We would like to apologise once again to all affected commuters for the inconvenience that was caused,” said Ms Tan.

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