Boo-boo train

Such drama on the rails while I was away in Japan!

The train service on the North-South Line, operated by SMRT Corporation, broke down for five hours in the evening on Thursday, cutting off access into and out of the city centre. According to various news reports, passengers had to wait for up to an hour in the stifling heat of enclosed carriages, where the air-conditioning had also failed, before being rescued by SMRT staff.

A man, who smashed a window of the train cabin to let in air after 40 minutes of waiting, told a newspaper that he had done so because repeated pleas to the train driver to do something about the ventilation had fallen on deaf ears.

Later, a spokesperson from the train company said that passengers should not break windows and that in the event of a power failure, a back-up system would activate emergency lights within the carriages and provide ventilation. He also said that if passengers had to escape a stranded train by going onto the tracks, power supply would be cut off and staff deployed to guide them.

And yet, the back-up system that provided electricity to run the air-conditioning and lights failed to work, and rescue staff came only after an hour. Clueless passengers in the train had to make do with repeated apology announcements instead of a frank explanation of the boo-boo.

At the same time, SMRT failed to provide real-time updates on the breakdown and information on what passengers could expect as immediate remedy.

Little wonder that passengers in the stranded train and those waiting aimlessly on train platforms at 11 affected train stations were pissed off and firing a barrage of tweets and online posts about the situation.

The breakdown came a day after its Circle Line was disrupted for 40 minutes.

As if all that drama on Thursday was not enough, the train broke down for seven hours on Saturday. A colleague shared how her boyfriend's sister was given nonchalant "I don't know" answers by station staff when Saturday's disruption set in. You would think that after Thursday's chaos, SMRT staff would all be educated right away on how to better handle a similar situation!

Aside from the train breakdowns, bridging services to help stranded passengers were a mess. Back-up buses were infrequent and insufficient. Some drivers lost their way, making journeys longer than necessary. Tempers frayed and arguments between passengers were many.

It is baffling how SMRT, the operator of two of Singapore's major rail networks, could fuck up like that. Already, we are disappointed with its lax security, which allowed its train depots to be broken into by graffiti artists - not once, but twice. Woe if those had been terrorists with bombs.

And as the operator of the backbone of Singapore's railway system, surely SMRT must regard system maintenance a task of utmost importance. So how could damaged rail claws go unnoticed despite regular checks conducted by SMRT?

Perhaps the maintenance staff only looked and did not see?

The other worrisome issue to emerge from this is how unprepared SMRT is for such a major disruption. Imagine the chaos if a train or station was attacked by terrorists!

SMRT has to wake up fast. Perhaps too much attention has been paid to making a fat profit by putting in retail shops to let, and too little thought was placed in ensuring the system is well-oiled and its crisis communication procedures are up-to-date.

A lack of competition has made SMRT complacent. So what if the North-East Line was operated by SBS Transit? SMRT has two lines in its grip and is resting on its laurels because it knows that it is unthinkable that another company will step in and take the operating concession from its hands.

If the management contract of Singapore's second cruise terminal can be issued for tender application by local and foreign companies, why can't our railway system do the same and let a more competent company take over? Let the operator concession be renewable after a set number of years, so that the operator will perform its best in terms of customer service, service reliability and so on, so as to bag a contract renewal in future.