News analysis Is there a better, more holistic way to track health of MRT system?

Beyond engineering performance, consider the impact on passengers and service quality too

- Kok Yufeng

In the 12 months ending in September, trains on the East-West Line (EWL) travelled an average of about 2.03 million train-km between delays of more than five minutes.

This is down from about 3.36 million train-km between delays that the 57km line recorded in 2023, based on the latest rail reliability figures published by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Nov 22.

The decline was expected, given the massive breakdown that crippled rail services between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations for six days in late September, affecting about 2.6 million passengers.

But even after factoring in one of the worst disruptions in the MRT system's 37-year history, the EWL's performance until September remained well above Singapore's target of one million train-km between delays.

This is based on mean kilometres between failure (MKBF) - a widely accepted measure of reliability adopted by the Community of Metros (Comet), a global collective comprising 45 metro systems from 42 cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Guangzhou and Tokyo.

This raises the question: How can a rail line pass with flying colours after such a major disruption?

It is also noteworthy that the target was set in 2017, and Singapore's MRT lines have consistently crossed the one million train-km threshold every year since 2019.

Asked by the Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh if the authorities were thinking about raising the MKBF target beyond one million train-km, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said in Parliament in November that the target remains "relevant and valid".

The authorities, he added, would have to assess carefully whether to raise it further.

This is because there is a trade-off between this and the costs incurred, which will ultimately have to be borne by either taxpayers through higher public transport subsidies or passengers through higher fares.

IS MKBF STILL RELEVANT?