Singapore's rail reliability continued to improve in first half of 2019

Based on a 12-month moving average, the latest figure puts Singapore's rail reliability on a par with standards in Hong Kong and Taipei. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - The Republic's rail network continued to improve in the first half of 2019, clocking an average of 955,000 train-km between delays - up from 786,000 in the first quarter and 690,000 for the whole of 2018.

Based on a 12-month moving average, the latest figure puts Singapore's rail reliability on a par with standards in Hong Kong and Taipei.

The best performer remains SBS Transit's North East Line, which clocked 4.14 million train-km between delays - double what it managed in the first three months - which makes it possibly the world's most reliable six-car line.

SMRT's North-South Line was second with 1.44 million train-km, up slightly from 1.1 million train-km in the first three months.

The performance of Singapore's oldest line, which had three of its six major assets renewed, exceeded that of the newest Downtown Line (DTL).

Operated by SBS Transit, the DTL clocked 1.15 million train-km between glitches.

This was followed by SMRT's two other lines: the East-West Line with 693,000 train-km and Circle Line with 606,000.

The LRT network also showed improvement, clocking 130,000 car-km between delays, up from 115,000 in the first quarter.

The Sengkang-Punggol LRT posted 353,000 car-km (up from 216,000) while the Bukit Panjang LRT managed 66,000 (up from 60,000).

Meanwhile, there were fewer major disruptions (those longer than 30 minutes) on the entire rail network, with three recorded in the second quarter - down from five in the first three months.

For the whole of 2018, there were 20 major delays.

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