MRT signalling tests: Better answers needed

Last week’s signalling woes brought frustration and misery upon thousands of commuters, including me (“More train delays possible as NSL signalling tests intensify: LTA-SMRT”; June 2, online).

While the Land Transport Authority and SMRT had expected “teething issues”, they seemed unprepared for the cascade of issues that resulted (June holidays ‘best opportunity’ to carry out new signalling trials: SMRT; June 6, online).

If this was a test of the Thales SelTrac CBTC system, it seemed imperative for the test designers to prepare contingency plans, including reverting to the Westinghouse fixed-block signalling system if things went awry. This did not happen.

Ground engineers scrambled to resolve issues instead, while front-line transport staff struggled to deal with the deluge of commuters trapped in trains for upwards of 45 minutes.

This was compounded by the inaccurate time estimates provided to commuters.

Delaying the timeline of tests would surely be preferable to the fallout of a major, prolonged failure, with the sting of train disruptions since 2011 remaining fresh on many commuters’ minds.

If SMRT and the LTA chose to press on because the new Kawasaki C151B trains, which cannot run on the Westinghouse system, were also being used for passenger service, then a rethink of the test planning process is needed.

I believe that many Singaporeans like myself understand the need for infrastructure renewal and empathise with ground engineers working their best to deploy these systems.

I question, however, the competence of SMRT’s, the LTA’s and Thales’ managements in planning such a test during a critical period of travel, with commuters bearing the consequences.