Commentary: To make Singapore’s MRT more reliable, take a good hard look at LTA and the rail operators

The COI led to sweeping changes in how the main MRT operator, SMRT, maintained its trains and operating facilities, requiring it to conduct regular audits and to install preventive systems to predict problems proactively.

As for the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the committee said it had to re-look how it fulfilled its responsibility to ensure safe and quality travel, which would require it to have greater oversight of the operators.

In other words, it had to exercise its regulatory powers more effectively.

Mr Lui stepped down as minister in 2015, quitting politics altogether. In his resignation letter to then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Lui cited the difficulties of addressing the public transport problems.

When Mr Khaw Boon Wan succeeded him as minister, he put improving the reliability of the train network as his topmost priority, and went about it with characteristic vigour and focus.

Billions of dollars have been spent on renewing the North-South and East-West lines, upgrading signalling equipment and a new monitoring system installed to detect potential problems.

During his five-year tenure, a widely used indicator known as the mean kilometre between failures (MKBF) improved from 133,000 in 2015 to 174,000 in 2016, 181,000 in 2017 and to 690,000 in 2018.

These were impressive gains.

But his record was also marred by major incidents, including the flooding of an MRT tunnel between Bishan and Braddell in 2017, affecting 250,000 commuters and leading to one of the longest service breakdowns.

A month later, 36 commuters were injured when a train collided with a stationary one in Joo Koon station.

When Mr Khaw faced parliamentarians a few days after the flooding incident to answer their questions he looked tired and acknowledged as much, noting that he and SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming had slept barely 20 hours since the flooding incident three days earlier.

“I have done a lot in the past two years and I have aged five years,” he said.