Singapore’s MRT railway revival bodes well for ruling PAP, but can it last?
- Service shutdowns, a train crash and employee fatalities – the Lion City’s subway system has run the gamut of possible calamities in the past decade
- The network is now enjoying a resurgence powered by billions in state spending, but some residents are wondering what happens when the money runs out
In July the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network made a breakthrough in service quality when its trains collectively covered their millionth kilometre for the year without a delay of more than five minutes. The metric is known as mean kilometres between failure, or MKBF.
This was a far cry from 2017 when the system managed a measly 181,000km.
Although the North-South Line – an inherently problematic railway that is Singapore’s oldest – has experienced a delay in excess of five minutes this year, it racked up 1.4 million kilometres without incident, placing it in the same league as top Asian metros such as those in Taipei and Hong Kong.
More than half of the MRT’s planned infrastructure upgrades have now been completed, and commuters are seeing the benefits. Billions of dollars have been poured into the network to rejuvenate the ailing system.
“The MRT has turned a significant corner after many months of intense maintenance work,” said Dr Terence Fan, assistant professor at the Singapore Management University, who studies transport.
