Downtown Line and Thomson-East Coast Line reliability fell in March; Circle Line improved

SINGAPORE – The reliability of the Downtown Line (DTL) fell in March due to a delay of more than five minutes, while the Circle Line’s (CCL) performance improved.

Overall, the MRT network’s reliability across all lines remained unchanged from February, according to data released by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on April 17.

On average, MRT trains clocked 1.74 million train-km between delays that lasted more than five minutes between April 2025 and March 2026, based on a 12-month moving average.

This figure is above the Republic’s rail reliability target of 1 million train-km, or mean kilometres between failure (MKBF), for the entire MRT network.

Reflecting the distance travelled by a train before encountering a delay of more than five minutes, the MKBF is a widely used engineering measure of rail reliability.

The North East Line (NEL), operated by SBS Transit, was still the most reliable MRT line, with a slight improvement in performance to 4.45 million train-km from 4.42 million train-km in February.

In second place was the CCL, run by SMRT. It averaged 2.37 million train-km, up from 1.8 million train-km the month before.

The third-most reliable line was the SBS Transit-operated DTL, which saw its performance drop from an average of 2.8 million train-km to 2.1 million train-km.

SMRT’s East-West Line (EWL) took the fourth spot and North-South Line (NSL) the last. They are Singapore’s oldest train lines.

EWL recorded 1.45 million train-km, up from 1.44 million train-km previously, while NSL held steady at 1.24 million train-km, the same figure since January.

The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), also operated by SMRT, saw a drop in performance owing to three delays in March that lasted more than five minutes each.

It averaged 374,000 train-km between delays, down from 415,000 train-km. However, its performance is not included in the overall rail reliability results.

MRT lines in their early stages, such as in the case of the TEL, the newest on the MRT network, tend to see significantly lower mileage owing to relatively low ridership and trains not running at typical frequencies.

The fifth and final stage of the line, which comprises Bedok South and Sungei Bedok stations, will open in the second half of 2026. LTA said the line’s performance can be fairly compared with the other MRT lines only when it is fully open and operations have stabilised.

Train punctuality across the five lines, measured as the percentage of trips completed within two minutes of the scheduled time, slipped slightly from 99.46 per cent to 99.43 per cent.

Although the EWL and NSL improved – from 99.17 per cent to 99.54 per cent and from 99.27 per cent to 99.35 per cent respectively – the other lines all saw marginal dips.

The TEL, which was excluded from overall network-wide punctuality data, had a punctuality rate of 99.22 per cent, down from 99.37 per cent a month earlier.

The proportion of train services that operated according to schedule dipped slightly, from 99.98 per cent to 99.90 per cent.

Among the mature lines, only the NSL improved in this regard – 99.96 per cent in February to 99.97 per cent in March. The others saw marginal drops. The TEL also saw an improvement, from 99.90 per cent to 99.98 per cent.

Across the MRT network in March, there were no major train delays that exceeded 30 minutes.

However, the LRT network experienced one, on the Sengkang-Punggol LRT, which is operated by SBS Transit. It recorded 749,000 car-km between delays, a drop from 860,000 car-km the month before.

The Bukit Panjang LRT, managed by SMRT, also saw a dip from 200,000 car-km to 186,000 car-km.

Overall, the LRT network’s reliability dropped from 410,000 car-km to 374,000 car-km in March.