{"id":45213,"date":"2026-04-17T17:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45213"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:21:37","slug":"dtl-tel-reliability-fell-in-march-ccl-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45213","title":{"rendered":"DTL, TEL reliability fell in March; CCL improved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->The reliability of the Downtown Line (DTL) fell in March due to a delay of more than five minutes, while the Circle Line\u2019s (CCL) performance improved. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Overall, the MRT network\u2019s reliability across all lines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/transport\/nel-reliability-doubles-in-february-mrt-trains-run-longer-between-delays-overall?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">remains unchanged from February<\/span><\/a>, according to data released by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on April 17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On average, MRT trains clocked 1.74 million train-km between delays that lasted more than five minutes between April 2025 and March 2026, based on a 12-month moving average.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This figure is above the Republic\u2019s rail reliability target of 1 million train-km, or mean kilometres between failure (MKBF), for the entire MRT network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Reflecting the distance travelled by a train before encountering a delay of more than five minutes, the MKBF is a widely used engineering measure of rail reliability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The North East Line (NEL), operated by SBS Transit, was still the most reliable MRT line, with a slight improvement in performance to 4.45 million train-km from 4.42 million train-km in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In second place was the CCL, run by SMRT. It averaged 2.37 million train-km, up from 1.8 million train-km the month before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The third most reliable line was the SBS Transit-operated DTL, which saw its performance drop from an average of 2.8 million train-km to 2.1 million train-km.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SMRT\u2019s East-West Line (EWL) and North-South Line (NSL) took the fourth and last spot, respectively. They are Singapore\u2019s oldest train lines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">EWL recorded 1.45 million train-km, up from 1.44 million train-km previously, while NSL held steady at 1.24 million train-km, the same figure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/transport\/overall-mrt-reliability-up-in-january-train-punctuality-dips-across-network?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">since January<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), also operated by SMRT, saw a drop in performance due to three delays in March that lasted more than five minutes each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It averaged 374,000 train-km between delays, down from 415,000 train-km. However, its performance is not included in the overall rail reliability results.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">MRT lines in their early stages, such as in the case of the TEL, which is the newest on the MRT network, tend to see significantly lower mileage due to relatively low ridership and trains not running at typical frequencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The fifth and final stage of the line, which comprises Bedok South and Sungei Bedok stations, will open in the second half of 2026. LTA said the line\u2019s performance can be fairly compared with the other MRT lines only once it is fully open and operations have stabilised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Train punctuality across the five lines, measured as the percentage of trips completed within two minutes of the scheduled time, slipped slightly from 99.46 per cent to 99.434 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Although the EWL and NSL improved\u2013 from 99.17 per cent to 99.54 per cent and from 99.27 per cent to 99.35 per cent respectively \u2013 the other lines all saw marginal dips.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The TEL, which was excluded from overall network-wide punctuality data, had a punctuality rate of 99.22 per cent, down from 99.37 per cent a month earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The proportion of train services that operated according to schedule dipped slightly, from 99.98 per cent to 99.9 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Among the mature lines, only the NSL improved in this regard \u2013 99.96 per cent in February to 99.97 per cent in March. The others saw marginal drops. The TEL also saw an improvement, from 99.9 per cent to 99.98 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Across the MRT network in March, there were no major train delays that exceeded 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">But the LRT network experienced one,<!-- --> <!-- -->on the Sengkang-Punggol LRT, which is operated by SBS Transit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It recorded 749,000 car-km between delays, a drop from 860,000 car-km the month before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Bukit Panjang LRT, managed by SMRT also saw a dip from 200,000 car-km to 186,000 car-km.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Overall, the LRT network\u2019s reliability dropped from 410,000 car-km to 374,000 car-km in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/transport\/downtown-line-and-thomson-east-coast-line-reliability-fell-in-march-circle-line-improved\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 The reliability of the Downtown Line (DTL) fell in March due to a delay of more than five minutes, while the Circle Line\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}