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Don’t allow same operator to run both buses, trains

Singapore’s MRT network has experienced delays owing to the signalling tests, and Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that the media had “magnified the problem unfairly” in their reporting (Khaw slams media coverage of train delays as ‘unfair’; July 28).

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Singapore’s MRT network has experienced delays owing to the signalling tests, and Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that the media had “magnified the problem unfairly” in their reporting (Khaw slams media coverage of train delays as ‘unfair’; July 28).

Recently, Hong Kong also had its share of train disruptions: Five over nine days. The MTR Corporation is expected to pay a penalty of at least HK$20 million (S$3.5 million) for a 10-hour delay on the 38-year-old Kwun Tong line on Aug 5.

The local media pulled out all the stops to report the melee. The front pages had pictures of commuters queueing in the summer heat to board the shuttle buses and of congested train platforms.

Three years ago, Hong Kong’s transport secretary said the government would consider pegging the remuneration of the operator’s top management to network reliability.

Calls for such deterrence may seem extreme at face value, but in a competitive marketplace, top management should take responsibility for delivering bad service to customers — in this context, breakdowns and an unreliable network to the public.

In Singapore, the operators have paid their management excessively in the past for helming a captive transport market. The remuneration was pegged to the operators’ bottom line, not the commuters’.

It remains to be seen whether splitting up ownership of the rail assets and operation of the train services will yield the desired outcome: A world-class transport system.

We have tried many ways to resolve the problems associated with the train breakdowns. Maybe we should also consider transforming the transport landscape by not allowing the same operator to run both train and bus networks.

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation does not own buses except for territory-limited services. So let our buses compete directly with the train operators to offer commuters a compelling choice and a wake-up call for the management of the behemoths.

Mr Khaw urged our operators to emulate Taipei Metro’s reliability (Khaw raises bar for rail reliability, sets new target; July 28).

Maybe we should also emulate its business model and carve out the bus and taxi segments into a separate entity so that there is 100 per cent focus on the rail business.

For too long, claims about being leading multi-modal public transport operators have been unfulfilled despite their overarching reach.

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