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SMRT opens S$5m centre to better respond to train disruptions

SINGAPORE — SMRT has given its maintenance and fault recovery efforts a S$5 million push in the form of its new Maintenance Operation Centre (MOC), said to be capable of shaving incident response times by nearly a third.

Screens in SMRT's newly set-up Maintenance Operation Centre provide real time information on developing situations from tracks and stations in one integrated facility at Bishan Depot. This helps to better coordinate and respond to technical issues along the NSEWL. Photo: Don Wong

Screens in SMRT's newly set-up Maintenance Operation Centre provide real time information on developing situations from tracks and stations in one integrated facility at Bishan Depot. This helps to better coordinate and respond to technical issues along the NSEWL. Photo: Don Wong

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SINGAPORE — SMRT has given its maintenance and fault recovery efforts a S$5 million push in the form of its new Maintenance Operation Centre (MOC), said to be capable of shaving incident response times by nearly a third.

Housed at Bishan Depot and manned round the clock by a team of 35 engineers and rail experts, the centre boasts an arsenal of software and hardware. A map of train locations and a wireless trains information management system allow MOC staff to tap into black box footage on trains and have greater visibility of happenings on the ground. This allows for swifter identification of problems and speedier decision-making.

A new staff deployment system, which can track the movement of workers, will also provide the MOC with a clearer idea of staff availability and proximity to the incident site. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology will be used to track spare trains, which will be deployed where necessary.

“In the past, the Operation Control Centre (OCC) had to liaise with maintenance staff travelling towards the location, and check with them on the status and try to coordinate efforts… You’re not very aware ... of what’s going on, and the OCC is not very updated on the status of recovery,” said SMRT Trains managing director Lee Ling Wee at a press conference today (Nov 12). “Now, we have full-time staff to coordinate all these efforts… so that gives a lot more assurance in terms of optimising the workforce.”

Tablets have been issued to technicians, providing them with instructions and on-the-go updates. Body cameras offering a live feed of ground happenings are currently being tried out. With these live updates, the MOC is better equipped to advise on-site technicians.

“In the past, the first responder may not be the right responder with the right expertise… Precious time is being lost in terms of the ability to effectively rectify the situation,” said SMRT president Desmond Kuek. “With all of these, when there is an incident on the ground, it’s not just one person or two people in the team out there... It’s an entire support system.”

For a start, the MOC will oversee the North-South and East-West lines (NSEWL). “It is our oldest line and it’s the one that’s giving us the most challenges because of its age,” said Mr Kuek.

Come 2017, the centre will cover the Circle Line and be moved to Kim Chuan Depot in Hougang — together with the current OCC for the NSEWL. With the MOC, the OCC will take on a “complementary” role by handling crowd control, among other duties.

SMRT said the MOC had swung into action for all disruptions that occurred since Aug 3, but it did not elaborate on the specifics. Still in the preliminary stages, the MOC currently coordinates the maintenance of trains and station equipment, such as escalators and screen doors. By the end of the year, it will take charge of track infrastructure such as the third rail, and in two years, it will cover tunnel ventilation and traction power, among others.

In its findings for the double train disruptions in Dec 2011, the Committee of Inquiry (COI) had said SMRT “should do more to facilitate interaction, collaboration and peer review among its technical departments as the sharing of knowledge is critical for systemic failure identification and improvement of maintenance practices”.

The COI also recommended that SMRT improve its internal processes and use technology to enhance its maintenance regime, including “harmonising inspection and maintenance procedures, enhancing maintenance IT systems, and other measures to ensure greater collaboration among SMRT technical departments”.

With the MOC, Mr Kuek hopes that the number of delays experienced by commuters will be reduced. As of September this year, there were five train service delays lasting more than half an hour hitting the NSEWL.

Seven out of 45 new trains for the NSEWL have also arrived, and will be operational by next year. The number of rail engineers has been bumped up from 191 in 2012 to 328 today.

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