Rail reliability up in May, with Circle Line leading the rise

The reliability of the Circle Line (CCL) improved the most across the entire MRT network in May, contributing to a second consecutive month of overall gains in rail reliability.

- Aqil Hamzah

On average, MRT trains clocked 2.5 million train-km between delays lasting more than five minutes between June 2025 and May 2026.

This is the second time the figure has exceeded two million train-km since November 2024 and is above Singapore’s rail reliability target — measured by mean kilometres between failure (MKBF) — of one million train-km for the entire MRT network.

The previous instance was in April, when trains registered 2.22 million train-km between delays.

MKBF, a widely used engineering measure of rail reliability, reflects how far a train travels before encountering a delay of more than five minutes. The Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) figures are based on a 12-month moving average.

The SMRT-operated CCL showed the biggest improvement, averaging 3.55 million train-km between delays, up from 2.36 million train-km the month before.

Reliability for the other lines either held steady or showed slight improvements.

The North East Line, operated by SBS Transit (SBST), remained the most reliable MRT line, averaging 4.46 million train-km between delays in May, up from 4.45 million train-km in April.

The other line that showed an improvement was the North-South Line (NSL). Managed by SMRT, it averaged 1.65 million train-km between delays, up from 1.42 million train-km.