When Mr Jan Wen-tau first boarded an MRT train in Singapore in July 1990, he was awe-struck.
The 27-year-old Taiwanese engineer had never left Taiwan before. Back home, the only trains were conventional railways – older systems with jerkier rides.
Little did he know it then, but his was the first step in a journey of joint discovery and shared learning between SMRT and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC, or Taipei Metro) that would last 36 years and counting.
“Riding the MRT felt completely different: much more modern, very bright and clean,” Mr Jan, now 63 and the vice-president of TRTC, recalls in Mandarin.
The MRT trains impressed him. But it was what happened in the classrooms, depots and control rooms operated by SMRT that left the deepest mark.
Mr Jan Wen-tau (front row, third from left) with his Taipei colleagues and SMRT trainers, including SMRT coordinator Mahani Bagarib (back row, first from right), in 1990. The two would meet again in Singapore 35 years later.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TRTC’S JAN WEN-TAU
Mr Jan was in Singapore from July to September 1990 for a training programme with seven Taipei colleagues. Their task: To learn how Singapore’s MRT system worked and bring that knowledge back to kickstart Taipei’s metro operations.
“The SMRT trainers held nothing back,” he says. “We brought back complete sets of materials, standard operating procedures and processes – which became our ‘operational bible’.”
Mr Jan (back row, far right) with his Taipei colleagues at Taoyuan International Airport, before their flight to Singapore in 1990. It was his first time leaving Taiwan.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TRTC’S JAN WEN-TAU
Today, the Taiwanese metro network is one of the world’s most efficient and reliable train systems in the world.
Rail reliability is typically measured through mean kilometres between failures (MKBF), which reflects how far a train travels before it encounters a delay of more than five minutes.
Based on the latest publicly available data collated by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, TRTC’s network clocked 23 million car-km in 2024. Singapore’s MRT network recorded 8.4 million car-km between March 2025 and February 2026.
Taipei Metro, launched in 1996, is one of the world’s most reliable train systems today.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Mr Jan was speaking to The Straits Times on the sidelines of the Metro Alliance meeting at Bishan Depot – the same depot where he had trained 36 years ago. The sixth biannual meeting, from March 4 to 6, was hosted by SMRT for the first time.
The alliance brings together the Singapore MRT operator and five Taiwanese metro systems, including TRTC, in an ongoing exchange of knowledge and expertise.
The partnership rests on a willingness to share – not just successes, but setbacks too.
When severe flooding at Bishan MRT station occurred in October 2017, suspending services between Ang Mo Kio and Newton MRT stations for more than 14 hours, SMRT launched a review of what had gone wrong.
Enter a team of eight senior engineers from Taipei shortly after to learn and to help – a gesture of support that SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming acknowledged in his speech at the alliance meeting.
“Taipei Metro responded immediately and offered invaluable support,” he said, “for which we remain deeply grateful.”
