Frequency of MRT Trains During Peak Hours

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether there are any constraints that prevent MRT trains from running at two-minute intervals throughout the periods of 7.00 am to 9.30 am and 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm on weekdays; and (b) whether LTA would consider requiring MRT operators to run trains at two-minute intervals throughout these periods in order to reduce overcrowding on trains during morning and evening rush hours.

Mrs Josephine Teo (for the Minister for Transport): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Giam for his question. Let me first address the question of when to run trains at two-minute intervals. Sir, loading levels today are not evenly distributed across the entire network during peak periods. During the morning peak period, loading levels along the North-South and East-West Line range from 1,350 to 1,420 passengers per train at the heaviest stretches from Bishan to Novena stations, and from Jurong East to Dover stations and this occurs between 7.45 am and 8.45 am. In contrast, average loading at these stretches is about 1,000 to 1,200 passengers per train for the half-hour period before and after this period. Hence, rather than run trains at two-minute intervals for the extended periods as suggested by the Member, current MRT service headways, or intervals between trains, are set to deliver capacity to meet the loading demand, subject to what is achievable under the respective systems.

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Let me now turn to the question of constraints. With the completion of the Jurong East Modification Project (JEMP) in May 2011, the infrastructure provisions are sufficient for trains to run at minimum headways of two minutes along the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL). The current train fleet only allows one stretch of the network – namely Yishun to Marina Bay along the North-South Line – to operate at two-minute headways for about 45 minutes during the morning peak. Headways at other parts of the network are still slightly longer than two minutes during the morning peak.

To further shorten headways and improve comfort levels for commuters, more trains will be added to the operating train fleet, in tandem with ongoing depot expansion works over the next few years. In addition to the five new trains put into service in May earlier this year, another 17 trains will be added by early next year. This will allow trains to run at two-minute intervals for a longer period across the NSEWL. Another 13 NSEWL trains will also arrive by around 2014 to 2015, and together, these additional 35 trains will enhance the capacity of the NSEWL by about 25%. More trains will also be delivered from 2016 to take advantage of the shorter headways made possible from the re-signalling of the NSEWL.

Besides the NSEWL, new trains are being purchased for the North-East Line (NEL) and the Circle Line (CCL) as well. They will be delivered in about four to five years' time, and are expected to increase the NEL's capacity by up to 50% and the CCL's capacity by about 40%.

Sir, Members may ask why these additional trains cannot be delivered earlier so that commuters can enjoy service improvements sooner. I understand your anxiety and share the same desire for quicker improvements. Unlike buying a car, however, trains cannot be purchased off the rack. Manufacturers do not carry inventories of train cars as trains have to be custom-built to fit the design of the line and platforms. To jump the queue for train purchases is also not possible as manufacturers have to fulfil their contractual commitments to other buyers. In addition, when we plan for additional train purchases, we must at the same time plan for increased depot space and stabling yards to house the trains when they are not in use. In land-scarce Singapore, this poses significant challenges. Notwithstanding these challenges, let me assure Members that we are fully committed to expanding the train fleet in order to improve frequencies of train arrivals.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for her reply. It looks like commuters would have to put up with the current crowds for quite a long time from here onwards until the signalling system is upgraded and until the new trains arrive. So, it seems that there is a certain lead time that is required to in order to implement all these changes. So, my question is: was there any planning ahead in order to accommodate this lead time to accommodate the larger crowds. There are priorities in terms of increasing the modal share of public transport in Singapore. And, at the rate that things are going, with the about 7.8% increase in ridership from last year until this year on the North South line and almost 10% increase on the North East line, the rate of increase is going to keep growing. And by the time the new signalling system comes on and the new trains come in, it would be just as crowded as it is right now. So, does the Ministry have any other plans in order to reduce the overcrowding now and to make the ride more comfortable in order to encourage more people to take public transport?

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Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Giam is very right to point out that there is a significant lead time required to put more trains into deployment. If I could just share with him that in fact, the five trains that have already been delivered this year and the 17 that are coming towards the end of the year, these 22 trains were, in fact, first mooted way back in 2007. So, to address his question of whether there is advanced planning, the answer is, yes, it has to be the case simply because of the long lead time required to deliver the trains. Projecting demand and ridership ahead of time is always going to be a tricky business. It is going to be very difficult to get it 100% right every time and if Members were to recall, at the beginning of 2009, for example, we were looking at a very difficult year ahead and projections of even 100,000 job losses. I remember that because I was in the labour movement at that time. And if the economy had turned out as was originally projected in the beginning of 2009, then the job losses as well as the slower growth would have impacted ridership and certainly would have changed the texture of things.

But as it turned out, by the third quarter of 2009, the economy had already shown signs of picking up and so what happened at that time was that the LTA worked together with the Public Transport Operators (PTOs) to look at bringing forward the delivery of those 22 trains that we were talking about. Originally, they were meant to be delivered by 2012, and this was brought forward to 2011 in tandem with the earlier completion of the Jurong East modification project.

To Mr Giam's question on whether there are ways in which we can try to relieve the loadings that we observe during the peak periods now: indeed, that has been exactly what we have been doing. In fact, it started much earlier than that. Since 2008, both operators have added more than 2,000 weekly train trips and in 2011 alone, both operators added about 800 weekly train trips. So, these have added significantly to the train capacity.

And at the same time, the PTOs have also introduced in-train and station platform announcements and deployed service ambassadors to facilitate the boarding and alighting of commuters at crowded stretches. Sometimes, we have trains waiting to get into the platform because of the movement of people that is delaying the trains exiting the platform. So, that is something that has been done too. What else can be done to address this capacity gap in the short run? We are monitoring the situation as closely as we can and, as the trains arrive, we would look at how to inject them into the system to reduce the loadings.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang): I would like to ask the Minister of State, would there be any chance that the opening of the Downtown Line in the next few years as well as opening up of the Circle Line in the next few years will also help in terms of offloading some of these congested lines? The second thing is that, I also noticed that there is an increasing trend of some employers asking their workers to use the public transport as opposed to private transport. Is there any chance of us trying to make employers or encouraging them to use private transport for some of these foreign workers on our public lines that could also offload some loadings? And also, my other concern would affect a lot of car users as well. We are trying to discourage private transport into towns but at the same time, the public transport may not be able to handle that load, given our hub and spoke model. Is there something we could do, given that potential crunch on both sides?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Zaqy's question on the Downtown Line: indeed, when the Downtown Line is fully operational, we expect it to significantly reduce the loadings because of the capacity expansion. As to working with employers, that is something that is being looked into. In terms of diverting it to private transport, it depends on what kind of private transport we are talking about. There are already, in the system, a number of these buses that have been hired directly by businesses to ferry their employees from one location to the next. These occur at peak hours across the whole island and there is significant number of these buses. But if we are talking about private transport, as in encouraging people to use cars, then I think the concern would be very much on the loading that we are putting on our roads, so that is something we want to be very careful about.

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Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng (Pioneer): Sir, this is a follow-up question for the Minister of State arising from Mr Zaqy's earlier question. Would it be possible, during the peak hours to have parallel buses running alongside the major MRT tracks? I am also interested to know how many train manufacturers are there that we can seek to manufacture such trains? Thirdly, other than increasing supply, can we also look into demand shaping? In other words, how to further incentivise commuters to travel during pre-peak hours? Today there is a 30-cent discount. Can that be increased?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Foo has asked very pertinent questions. Firstly, parallel bus services. In fact, they have been introduced at stretches where the loading levels on the trains are very heavy. The observation that we have made is that many commuters, however, still prefer to take the trains, even if they have to miss one or two in order to get on to it. I think it is a rather rational behaviour because even if you miss one or two trains, that adds, maybe five to six minutes, to your total train journey, whereas if you were to take the bus, it could end up potentially longer, depending on road conditions. So, the observation that we have made is that parallel bus services, even those that have been introduced, have taken on some new passengers but not a whole lot more. To his other question on train manufacturers, that is certainly something that we would look at. But perhaps if I could just touch on his question on demand shaping, which is a very important one. Since the enhanced discount for pre-peak travel was introduced, the numbers are not completely in yet. Anecdotally, the shifting of behaviour has not been as great and it looks like more needs to be done to encourage people to travel earlier. The feedback that has been given is that commuters often value their sleep more than what they have to pay. So, the LTA is studying this very carefully and should be making known some of its demand management ideas soon. We will share further at the right time.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam, last question.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just want to clarify – because it seems like this process of buying the trains – every time there is an order for a train, the whole process seems to start all over again. Moving forward, would the Ministry consider having an option to purchase more trains with the same specifications, maybe a few years down the road instead of re-starting the process all over again. Secondly, regarding the measures to improve the crowding issue, would LTA plan to build more stations that allow the trains to turn around so that the trains can run along the busy stretches at a faster rate and, lastly, with all these delays, that is, arrival of the trains and the increase of the passengers, does the Minister of State see a situation where we will be like Tokyo, where we have these oshiyas (the pushers) who push people onto the trains in Singapore?

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Mrs Josephine Teo: I can confirm this with the LTA but I believe that, in fact, we do have options. But just to add that options do not come free of charge, they come at a price too. As to whether we would become like Japan needing those o shiyas , I was recently in Japan at the train stations, getting a sense of what the loading levels are like. If we were to take the loading levels that are experienced in the Tokyo system and compare it to ours, I think theirs is a little bit higher. Having said that, it is fair to say that climatic conditions are different and also, Japan has a homogeneous society. So, realistically, we do not necessarily need to compare ourselves on such specific measures. Our aim is really to bring in capacity as soon as we can, and fortunately in Singapore, because of the way we have managed our finances in a very prudent manner, financial constraint is not what is holding us back from adding the capacity. So, I would say that, as Mr Zaqy pointed out earlier, once the Downtown Line is delivered, there will be significant capacity expansion, and during those times, I think we can expect that the loading levels would become more manageable.