JOHOR BARU: A Singapore cabinet minister admitted the collision involving two Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains yesterday has further tested the public’s perception of the republic’s rail transport system.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said despite many improvements made on the metro system, “all that good work” was affected by recent issues and yesterday’s collision which left 29 people injured.
Shanmugam’s comment came several hours after the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) cited a software problem on one of the two trains involved as the cause of the collision.
“The recent MRT related issues have sorely tested the public mood. Today’s (yesterday’s) collision adds to that. People naturally ask why these problems are recurring. They are fed up, despite the overall improvement in transport.
“When trains get delayed, people feel it acutely, and the overall measurements of disruption-free periods mean less to them,” Shanmugam said on his official Facebook page.
However, Shanmugam said he was confident that his colleague, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan would “sort things out” as the latter had been making strides since helming the transport ministry more than two years ago.
“Of special note, Minister Khaw has moved to strengthen the engineering teams. But from a public perspective, all that hard work, good work, has been affected by the recent serious incidents,” Shanmugam said.
Twenty-nine people were injured during a collision involving two trains at the Joo Koon MRT station near Tuas at 8.20am yesterday, which was during morning rush hour.
The incident occurred when a stalled train on the East-West Line was hit on its rear by a second train, which initially was in a stationary position as well.
SMRT Corp Ltd had said in a statement that the second train abruptly moved and collided with the train in front of it.
LTA deputy chief executive (infrastructure and development) Chua Chong Kheng told Singaporean media last night that a faulty signalling system on the MRT East-West Line had inadvertently removed a software protection feature on the first of two trains which had come to a halt at the Joo Koon MRT station.
“The preliminary finding was that the first train, which departed from the Ulu Pandan Depot with a software protection feature turned on, had the feature inadvertently turned off when the first train passed by a faulty signalling circuit.
“This train then arrived at Joo Koon station without the feature. The removal of this feature resulted in the first train giving off a train profile on the new signalling system as a three-car train instead of a six-car train.
“As a result, the second train detected the first train as a three-car train and misjudged the distance between the two trains, therefore resulting in the collision.”