Reader Response (2nd Draft)

In the article, “Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system.”, Lee (2015) has stated that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, thought highly of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) he suggested that local transportation sectors should use MTRC as a guideline for its “reliability standards”. Based on MTR’s and SMRT’s annual reports, comparing countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and London, Hong Kong’s subway system emerged with the highest “system’s farebox recovery ratio”. Comparing both MTR and SMRT’s railway systems, the length of MTR’s railway surpasses SMRT’s by 59km. That being said, the punctuality of SMRT trains is 3.9% slower than MTR even though both countries face the same amount of significant hold ups. Looking at the expenditure of profits on enhancing train systems, MTR invested a larger amount of their earnings compared to SMRT’s rail revenue. MTR also ensure that their passengers enjoy a safe and smooth ride by having much higher inspection frequency compared to SMRT and being meticulous in examining the railway lines. MTRC aims to rectify any issues or faults that arises under two minutes with the introduction of the “Super Operations Control Centre” which oversees the entire railway system, resolving emergencies with their fast reaction.
With the rising concern over the issue on reliability of the Singapore’s railway system, I agree with the article at the year of news released, when Transport Minister blogged on that Singapore is “under-invested” in rail maintenance expenditures compared to MTR, which led to multiple disruptions and faults in railways. Hence Singapore should maximise its rail expenditure in maintenance-related activities and also, to source for alternate ideas to improve railway reliability.
According to Lee (2015) in Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system, Mr Khaw blogged on Singapore’s “under-invested” in rail maintenance with 19 per cent in rail revenue in comparison to MTR’s 37 per cent in rail revenue. In the article, Heavy Investments in Maintaining Rail Network: SMRT, Lee (2016) stated that there is an increment of up to 53 per cent of SMRT’s rail revenue spent on maintenance-related. Recently, LTA has also broadened its investment by sourcing ideas from closely-related industry, encouraging companies to tender project designing a drone for train and tunnels in replace of non-automated checks of deficiency (Mediacorp News Group, 2017). The article also mentioned that LTA is making use of this opportunity to test for idea feasibility and its effectiveness. This could be Singapore’s first step in learning from MTR, investing in research and development (R&D) to improve its reliability and efficiencies of Singapore’s railway.


SMRT’s efforts has shown to yield significant results after an increment of rail investment with 53 per cent of rail revenue in 2016. According to LTA (2017), The Rail Report, there has been a significant improvement in train performance with the operator’s effort on investing in maintenance-related. It also stated the Mean Kilometre Between Failure (MKBF), measuring delays of more than 5 minutes has improved from 133,000 train-km travelled in 2015 to 174,000 train-km, and further improved to 354,000 train-km in first quarter 2017. Thus, the results have further proved that the right investment decision could bring railway reliability to a higher level.
This can be concluded that Singapore should follow MTR by increasing their investment in rail maintenance-related after Transport Minister pointed out that Singapore had “under-invested”. LTA is also looking to broaden its investment in technology to increase railway credibility. Results from train performance has further proven Singapore’s choice in investment to improve their railway reliability and hence improving commuters travel experience.

(599 words)

References
Lee Min Kok (2015). Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system. Retrieved from


Land Transport Authority (2017). The Rail Report: Rail Reliability Continues to Improve – More Rail Renewal Projects in The Pipeline. Retrieved from
Lee Ling Wee (2016). Heavy Investments in Maintaining Rail Network: SMRT. Retrieved from


Mediacorp New Group (2017). LTA calls for ideas to test use of drones for tunnel checks. Retrieved from
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/wanted-drones-inspect-underground-mrt-road-tunnels

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