Operating Performance Standards of MRT System

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether LTA will provide (i) a full list of the MRT Operating Performance Standards (OPS); and (ii) a list of all the incidents of non-compliance with the OPS in the past one year; (b) what were the reasons for the OPS non-compliance; (c) what were the severity of these incidents; and (d) what were the penalties meted out to the operators for each of these incidents.

Mr Lui Tuck Yew: Under the current licensing framework, the train operators are required to adhere to the Operating Performance Standards (OPS) imposed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The LTA monitors and measures the operators' performance for three broad categories: (1) Service quality; (2) Safety assurance; and (3) Key equipment performance. Should operators fail to adhere to the OPS, they face a penalty of up to $1 million.

For standards relating to service quality, operators are required to meet specified standards for train service availability and train schedule adherence. They are also required to comply with specified schedules for first and last train services, maintain prescribed minimum train headways during operations and ensure that standards relating to train passenger loading are met. Aside from this, operators must comply with standards relating to the severity of service disruptions and frequency of occurrence of service disruptions.

For standards relating to safety assurance, operators are required to ensure that there are no incidents involving collision, derailment on the mainline, or fire incidents in either the trains or the stations. Operators are also required to report all passenger accidents (above first aid cases) and ensure a low passenger injury rate.

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For standards relating to key equipment, it is incumbent upon the operator to meet minimum availability standards for key equipment, including fare gates, ticketing machines, escalators and lifts, so that such equipment is well-functioning for commuters.

With the exception of the following, the train operators have not breached the OPS in the past year: the disruptions on the North-South Line on 15 and 17 December 2011 which affected 127,000 and 94,000 commuters respectively, the disruption on the North-East Line on 15 March 2012 which affected 90,000 commuters and the disruption on the Circle Line on 20 September 2011 which affected 27,000 commuters.

In these cases, the operators would have breached the severity of service disruption OPS, in which the total number of persons denied from taking the usual train service should not exceed an aggregate of 20,000 pax/incident.

LTA is still investigating the causes of these major service disruptions. Should the train operator be found to be liable, they will be penalised accordingly. In assessing the penalty amount, LTA will consider the severity of the incidents, as well as any mitigating factors including but not limited to the operators' performance in managing the disruptions in order to alleviate the inconvenience caused to affected commuters.