More MRT closures planned over longer periods for repair works: Jeffrey Siow

SINGAPORE – Passengers can expect more scheduled closures of the rail network that are stretched out over a longer period, to create more time for major upgrades of MRT lines.

This is to allow repair works to be completed more quickly and safely, said Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow on Nov 19, citing the

10-day stoppage of train services

on stretches of the East-West Line (EWL) from late November as an example.

Speaking to more than 700 global rail experts at the inaugural International Metro Operators’ Summit organised by public transport operator SBS Transit, Mr Siow said it is no longer enough to shorten operational hours with early closures and late openings of stations to increase the number of maintenance hours.

“As our network ages, we will have to shift this balance a little to create more time for major upgrades that require a continuous block of maintenance time,” he said at the summit at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

He also flagged two other challenges in maintaining rail reliability: the low adoption of new technology and a lack of fresh talent entering the sector.

Likening a metro system to a combination of a house, car and computer, Mr Siow said some people might own a 40-year-old house or car, but definitely not a 40-year-old computer – let alone a 100-year-old train system like the Tube in London.

Keeping these systems going is “almost Sisyphean”, requiring constant patching and repairs, or even occasional upgrades, he said.

“A metro system is extremely complex. It is made up of many interconnected parts,” he added.

Mr Siow noted that the maintenance of MRT systems in Singapore is done in a 3½-hour window, starting from the time train services fully shut down at night and ending when the system starts up again.

In fact, if the time taken to deploy and extract the heavy equipment for maintenance is factored in, there are only about two engineering hours available each night to carry out works, he added.

This is scarcely enough time to get the system ready for the next morning, much less do any major upgrades, said Mr Siow.

On Nov 18, an international panel of rail experts visiting Singapore suggested that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) should

carry out longer planned shutdowns of segments of the rail network,

to allow critical maintenance and renewal works to be done safely and efficiently.

Renewing several critical systems simultaneously while managing day-to-day rail operations poses challenges, said the panel, which is advising a task force to raise the reliability of Singapore’s MRT and LRT networks.

From Nov 29 to Dec 8, train services on the EWL will not run between Bedok and Tampines stations. There will also be no service between Tanah Merah and Expo stations during that period.

This is the second round of service adjustments to allow for track works.

On the technology gap, Mr Siow said that when metro systems first open, they are almost always state of the art, but they become outdated almost immediately, and legacy systems cannot be upgraded easily.

More can be done to keep up with new technologies by retrofitting existing systems and using automation or robotics for maintenance, he added.

For example, while condition monitoring was talked about 15 years ago with the aim of getting real-time data to track performance and predict failures before they occur, it is still quite difficult and costly to retrofit legacy systems for such data collection, Mr Siow said.

Mr Yee Boon Cheow, deputy chief executive of infrastructure development at LTA, said rail operations and customer service should take on a more predictive form – in which the operator can use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict what customers need.

For example, if a train station is always crowded at a certain time of day, the operator can adjust train arrivals before the platform starts getting crowded, said Mr Yee.

He was speaking at a panel discussion at the summit with five other speakers on the role of technology in the future of rail systems. It was moderated by Mr T.C. Chew, Asia-Pacific managing director of consultancy Arup.

When asked how LTA rolls out upgrades of rail technologies, Mr Yee said it depends on the objectives the authority hopes to achieve for a specific MRT line.

Sixty-seven per cent of the population here uses public transport, he added, so the aim is to have a reliable system that allows passengers to reach their destinations on time and in a cost-effective manner.

In the long term, Mr Yee said having a decentralised rail system may be more beneficial than an integrated one with many components. This is because upgrades to one specific part can be carried out more easily without having to adjust other components.

The authority is also discussing the standardisation of rail system design, he added, because there are currently too many different types of trains and systems, such as signalling, power and track circuit systems.

Addressing the audience in a speech, Mr Cheng Siak Kian, managing director and group chief executive of ComfortDelGro, said a new predictive maintenance system that consistently monitors the air pressure system on the North East Line has identified more than 10 cases of potential failures, preventing disruptions before they occur.

He added that air pressure on that line is crucial in ensuring that the train pantograph – a device on the roof of the train – stays in contact with the overhead catenary system to receive power.

Rail operator SBS Transit is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro.

Noting that there are around 8,000 rail workers here, of which the median age is above 40, Mr Siow said it is harder to get younger people to replace the current rail technician workforce due to the perception that these jobs can be “dirty, dangerous and difficult”.

There is also intense competition with other industries for workers with deeper technical skill sets such as in electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as software and cyber security, he said.

“If the rail sector is unable to attract enough younger engineers and technicians, the manpower shortage will worsen, especially when the current crop of senior technicians retire,” said the Acting Minister.

A National Transport Academy, helmed by former LTA deputy chief executive Jeremy Yap, was recently formed to draw expertise from across existing rail, bus and other training academies, he noted.

While Singapore’s system is relatively new at 40 years old, Mr Siow said it is increasingly facing the same problems that other older metro systems have encountered in maintaining service quality and reliability as the system ages.

“But if we mind the gap, we can all look forward to a smoother ride,” he said, noting that this entails operators, unions and LTA working together.

Mr Siow also asked the public for understanding, saying that “even with the best of efforts, sometimes disruptions and delays will still happen – as they do everywhere in the world”.

At the summit, SBS Transit signed 10 agreements with its partners, including one with footfall analytics firm Pinpoynt.ai to develop an AI platform that provides real-time crowd information at MRT stations.