Khaw Boon Wan
Singapore
“Motor vehicle dealerships and showrooms have been closed since the start of the circuit breaker. As COE bidding is done mostly by the motor vehicle dealers on behalf of prospective owners, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) suspended COE bidding for the months of April and May.”
“Though stressed by the financial pain, they press on with the immediate priority of fighting the virus and supporting essential services. Post-pandemic, we will see how public transport evolves. Will demand for public transport services simply return to the pre-pandemic level?”
“Under our rail financing framework, the Government fully pays for the cost of building new rail lines. In other words, we do not recover the cost of building the Cross Island Line (CRL) from commuters through fares. The CRL project is being implemented and the final costs will depend on tender bids.”
“There are around 5,000 private bus operators with a combined fleet of 13,500 private buses. As we do not track the number of private bus trips and passengers, we do not have data on their carbon emissions.”
“There are nursing rooms at 50% of our bus interchanges. We will provide nursing rooms at all new bus interchanges and integrated transport hubs. For the MRT network, we will provide nursing rooms at all new interchange stations. We will also explore providing such facilities when MRT stations undergo upgrading.”
“Over the last three years, Singapore carriers have reported a total of 20 incidents of food allergies on board their flights. None required the use of epinephrine or emergency flight diversions.”
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“The Land Transport Authority (LTA) gives priority to the installation of noise barriers along elevated Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tracks where the noise level in adjacent residential developments due to the MRT exceeds the National Environment Agency's (NEA) recommended threshold criterion of 67 decibels, averaged over an hour.”
“The Government will be introducing new rules and a code of conduct for cycling and use of personal mobility devices, which will help to ensure the safety of both pedestrians and cyclists when sharing footpaths. The new rules will, amongst others, impose a speed limit of 15 kilometres per hour for bicycles on footpaths, and disallow electric bicycles on the paths. The code of conduct will require cyclists to give way to pedestrians and slow down and be prepared to stop when approaching crowded areas. We will promote adherence to the rules and code of conduct through enforcement and education. A dedicated team of Active Mobility Enforcement officers from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will patrol areas with high pedestrian and cyclist traffic and high incidence of complaints. They will be supported by Active Mobility Patrol teams, which comprise volunteers from the community and grassroots. They will educate cyclists about the new rules and code of conduct and encourage safe and gracious cycling behaviour. In fact, these enforcement officers and volunteers are already on the ground advising cyclists, even though the rules have not yet been passed into law. However, we cannot rely just on enforcement. A more sustainable solution is for Singaporeans to develop a harmonious and gracious culture and to be considerate towards one another when sharing paths and roads. Thus, LTA launched the Safe Riders Campaign in April this year and will be publicising the new rules and code of conduct through a nationwide education campaign in the coming months.”
“Cycling is prohibited on expressways and on specific roads where there are safety concerns, such as the Fort Canning Road tunnel. At these roads, there are signs that show that cycling is prohibited there. From June 2015 to June this year, 29 summonses were issued for violation of these rules. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) works with the National Parks Board, Traffic Police, Town Councils, Grassroots Organisations and the Safe Cycling Task Force to educate cyclists about safety. Our initiatives include safety and etiquette workshops at Community Centres and Residents' Committee centres, training volunteers to serve as safety ambassadors in cycling towns, briefings for foreign workers about traffic rules, and Safe Cycling Clinics for secondary school students. In addition, LTA will launch the Safe Cycling Programme at the end of this year to educate the general public about safe cycling practices, proper use of cycling infrastructure and the proposed new rules and code of conduct for cyclists.”
“In many major cities, public transport is subsidised. However, we need to guard against it becoming an excessive fiscal burden. The new fare formula will have to strike a balance between fiscal prudence and ensuring that fares continue to remain affordable.”
“Based on the fare formula, I expect the Public Transport Council, or PTC, to consider a maximum fare reduction of 5.7% for the upcoming fare exercise. This fare reduction quantum is due to the sharp fall in energy prices over the last year. However, we should note that energy prices can be volatile and may rebound sharply in the following years. The current fare formula, which was introduced in 2013, is valid for five years, including for the 2017 fare exercise. It will be reviewed before its expiry next year. I do not wish to pre-judge PTC's future deliberations on this. However, I think we should keep in mind that in response to higher commuter expectations, the Government has been rapidly expanding our rail network and injecting more buses and trains into the system and also making costly improvements through restructuring the bus and rail industries. While these initiatives have improved our public transport system significantly, they have and will continue to increase the extent of Government subsidies in public transport. For instance, under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme, the Government has committed $1.1 billion over five years. Under bus contracting, the Government will be subsidising about $3.5 to $4 billion in the next five years. Similarly, on the rail side, due to the Government taking over ownership of the operating assets under the New Rail Financing Model, the Government expects to spend over $4 billion on renewing, upgrading and expanding operating assets for the next five years. These will be on top of the $20 billion that the Government has committed to spend on building new rail lines in the same period. We are also requiring the rail operators to invest more heavily in maintenance to raise our rail reliability substantially.”
“The development of Terminal 5 is a major investment to ensure that Changi Airport continues to remain competitive and serve Singapore's growing economic and connectivity needs. At full capacity, Terminal 5 will be as large as Terminals 1, 2 and 3 combined. Given the scale of investment needed, the Government set up the Changi Airport Development Fund to help fund the building of Terminal 5. For Terminals 1 to 4, Singapore's sole airport operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) is also the owner. However, there are other leading airports where operation and ownership are separate. The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) have therefore commissioned a study to determine the ownership model for Terminal 5 following its completion that can best support our objective of maintaining Changi Airport's position as a leading air hub for the long term. We are not, however, considering a public-private partnership model of co-development.”
“We will make it compulsory for all lorries with cranes to install audio warning systems to alert the drivers if their cranes are not retracted before moving off. In addition, we are studying the feasibility of installing safety interlock systems to immobilise the lorry if its crane is not fully stowed. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is currently consulting vehicle owners and other industry stakeholders on these proposed measures. We will announce the details prior to implementation.”
“The existing two underpasses connect Goldhill Centre to Novena Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Station, and Revenue House to Novena Square respectively. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be reconstructing them to connect all four locations. This will be an improvement over today’s situation. LTA will also be installing lifts at the entrances and exits of the reconstructed underpasses.”
“In recent years, taxi ridership had grown by about 2% annually, based on data on taxi trips submitted by taxi companies. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) also conducts the Taxi Customer Satisfaction Survey (TCSS) annually, which provides a good understanding of commuter usage patterns and satisfaction with different aspects of taxi services. These taxi demand trends may change, given the growth in supply and popularity of competing services like those provided by Uber and Grab. However, our data on the chauffeured services industry is relatively scant and we do not yet have any projections for the industry, as chauffeured services' popularity is a recent phenomenon. To complete the picture, we will be expanding TCSS to include chauffeured services. We are also amending the Road Traffic Act to require chauffeured service providers to provide LTA with trip data. Taken together with the data we have of taxi services, LTA will then be able to more comprehensively study overall commuter patterns and make meaningful projections.”
“The Singapore and Malaysia Governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 19 July 2016 for the High Speed Rail project. Under the MOU, each Government takes responsibility for funding, constructing and maintaining the civil infrastructure and stations within their own countries. Therefore, the Malaysian government will be responsible for funding, constructing and maintaining the Bandar Malaysia terminus. We would not be involved. Furthermore, we have worked out with the Malaysians a robust commercial framework and approach for joint procurement that we believe will give the best opportunity for the High Speed Rail project to be financially viable and sustainable in the long term. A bilateral committee will also be formed to oversee the cross-border aspects of the project, including to ensure adherence to timelines and minimise delays.”
“The tender for the next phase of the noise barrier programme is planned for the second half of this year. It will include Nee Soon South constituency. We expect to start installing noise barriers along Yishun Avenue 2 in 2019.”
“On top of this, to ensure that the Government’s assets are well-maintained and operations are better run, SMRT Trains will be required to comply with a rigorous set of Maintenance Performance Standards, Asset Management Requirements and Codes of Practice. In particular, the Maintenance Performance Standards will regulate maintenance processes upstream to ensure that issues which may affect train reliability are pre-emptively identified.”
“Under the previous financing framework, rail operators own the operating assets, such as the trains and the signalling system. They are, hence, responsible for the building up, replacing and upgrading of the operating assets. However, as operators bear the full financial risk, they may be too cautious to undertake these costly works. This can affect the capacity and reliability of train services. That is why the Government implemented the New Rail Financing Framework, or NRFF, in 2011 for the Downtown Line. Under NRFF, the Government owns the operating assets and is responsible for expanding, replacing and upgrading them. The train operator pays an annual Licence Charge for the right to use these assets and to earn revenue from operating the line. The Licence Charge is paid into a Railway Sinking Fund to finance future build-up, replacement and upgrade of the operating assets. Following Downtown Line, the Land Transport Authority began discussions with SMRT and SBS Transit (SBST) to transit the older lines to NRFF. The discussions with SMRT have concluded. Subject to SMRT shareholders' approval, the North-South and East-West lines, the Circle Line, and the Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit (LRT), will be transited to the NRFF. The transition will benefit commuters in the following ways. First, we will be able to respond to increased ridership, and replace and upgrade operating assets, in a more timely fashion. Second, the operator, having been relieved of heavy capital expenditure, can focus on providing reliable and well-maintained rail services for commuters. Third, we can shorten the licence tenure from 30-plus years to 15 years. The operator will need to perform well if they want to be reconsidered at the end of 15 years.”
“Other major cities do not publish data of oil spills on roads and, hence, we are unable to compare. Minor oil spills are quite common on our roads and there are at least three or four per day. However, major oil spills that require road repairs are infrequent. There were two in 2014 and Page: 160 seven last year. Of these, only three caused major tailbacks. Depending on assumptions on the economic value of time, we estimate the costs to be in the region of $200,000 to $300,000 for each of these tailback incidents. We are looking to impose a stronger deterrent against major oil spills.”
“Motorists of foreign-registered vehicles found responsible for causing accidents are liable for the damages incurred. Thus, Singaporeans involved can claim against the motorists or their insurer if the insurance covers third-party property damage for accidents that occur in Singapore. In addition, the Motor Vehicle Act requires all vehicles used on Singapore roads, whether local or foreign-registered, to be insured against third-party bodily injury and death. To effect this for Malaysian-registered vehicles, the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Singapore (MIBS) has Special Agreements with Malaysian insurers to require that they settle claims against their insured who get into accidents in Singapore which involve deaths or injuries. In such cases, MIBS will facilitate the third-party claimants from Singapore to file their claims with the insurers in Malaysia. The duration of the claim process varies from case to case, depending on the complexity. Page: 158”
“If the Member has listened carefully to what I have said over the last half an hour, he would note that Kawasaki, at great cost to themselves, has taken full ownership of the problem − not in denial, "not my problem", "somebody else's problem". They went all out to Page: 27 protect their reputation, make certain decisions, not at our request, but on their own, volunteered to have the bolsters replaced, to completely replace the car-bodies, extended warranty, restarted the warranty commencement. That is part of the reason why LTA originally decided to release one train at a time even though the whole process would then drag on to 2023. What it means is that we have free use of the trains for several years and a prolonged warranty period. I think that is much more than one can hope for from any manufacturer. Indeed, all organisations should try to emulate, including all of us in positions of responsibility, let us say, for running Town Councils. That should be the attitude we take when we confront a problem. Take ownership, rectify it to the satisfaction of your customer.”
“As I said, the problem was with certain batches of aluminium which are manufactured and used for the bolsters. So, when the manufacturer offered to say from now on, all bolsters will be manufactured in Japan, that settles the issue.”
“Madam, as I said earlier, currently, we are deploying up to 124 trains during peak hours, out of the 140 trains we have for the North-South East-West Lines. So, we have 140 trains altogether, but actual deployment, at the maximum, that means, during peak hours, 124. It is standard practice in all subway systems to have a buffer, about a 10% of trains for repairs, upgrading and standby. By "standby", we are talking about both cold standby and hot standby. Hot standby means the trains are ready to be launched if you want to. This is because sometimes, for example, yesterday, when you have this train with the air-con problems, you can immediately deploy a new train into the system. This is called "hot standby". At any one time, there is only one train sent back to China for the manufacturer to replace the bolsters and, therefore, we are well within the 10% buffer. The Kawasaki-Sifang train incident has not affected the reliability of the system. None of the delays on the trains was due to the bolsters' hairline cracks.”
“Sorry for missing out on that little subsection. The subsequent contracts will have the bolsters from Japan. Page: 26”
“Mdm Speaker, the consortium, Kawasaki-Sifang, had fully complied with the terms of their warranty and was cooperative. In fact, as I elaborated just now, I think they were exemplary in their conduct. After the defects were discovered, they immediately committed to making the rectifications to the Land Transport Authority's full satisfaction. All costs, including shipping, are borne by them. The concern about the defects had thus been resolved when we called the tender for more trains in 2014 and 2015. Our train tenders have always been conducted in an open and transparent manner, and are based objectively on quality and price assessments. Kawasaki-Sifang won the subsequent tenders fairly. The list of tenderers and their prices are publicly available online.”
“Relying on memory, I do not think the report talked about car-body. The report was purely to check firstly, what is the reason for the bolster defect and it established that there was impurity during the manufacturing process. Secondly, is it safe to use the train with the crack still on the bolster? The consultants focused on these two issues. The decision to rectify this problem by getting new bolsters and to get the new car-body was made by the manufacturers. I can understand, as an engineer, why they decided to take this course of action. It is a little bit like when you extensively Page: 25 renovate your house. Sometimes, the contractor will tell you, I think, in all honesty, it is better you tear it down and rebuild. If it is massive renovation, they find that it is more troublesome and, perhaps, it may even take longer and, sometimes, they do recommend to simply tear it down and rebuild. Let us understand a little bit of the process here. The bolster is welded, as I said, to the car-body and then the car-body carries all the engines, the seats, glass windows, and so on. The bolster is the one that has some problem. To replace the bolster is straightforward. You must replace the bolster because it has impurities in it. If you were to reuse the car-body, then what it means is that, first, you got to cut out the bolster from the car-body. And then when you receive the new bolster, you got to find a way to weld it to the car-body. Of course, they do not speak Singlish, but they probably said, "Aiyah, so 'leceh'. Let's just produce a new car-body and get a new piece of bolster and weld it on."”
“TUV Rheinland's technical report assessed that the trains are safe to operate. It also assessed that the primary root cause of the hairline cracks is the inherent defect in certain batches of the bolsters. We have no objection to make public the consultant's report. However, as the contract contains a confidentiality clause whereby written permission from the consultant has to be granted, we will put the request to them. If they have no objection, we will have it published on the Land Transport Authority website.”
“What is the difference? One is made in Japan and one is made in China. Is there a qualitative difference? I do not know. But the decision − using new bolsters from Japan − is made by the manufacturers themselves. They said, "Well, since it is defective, I will replace your bolsters". And they offered to now use a Japanese bolster and, of course, we said "You are welcome to use Japanese bolsters". In fact, the first generation of Kawasaki trains all used Japanese bolsters. I do not think we need to read anything more into this. I do not want to create a diplomatic problem.”
“The hairline cracks do not compromise the safety of commuters. The trains are safe. The trains are designed with a large safety margin of three. What it means is that the bolsters are able to take more than three times the maximum stress that they may experience during operations. The cracks have not reduced this safety margin. In other words, all these can be tested in the laboratory and you can check it out that, despite having the cracks, the safety margin of at least three is still being preserved. The cracks have not reduced the safety margin. But to be absolutely sure, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had appointed an independent assessor, TUV Rheinland and the assessors confirmed that the trains are entirely safe to operate. In any case, as I said just now, LTA, SMRT and Kawasaki-Sifang continue to monitor closely the affected trains, including those that have been repaired and returned to service. Page: 24 Kawasaki-Sifang decided that the most effective repair method was to replace the entire car-body. This is because the bolster, where the hairline cracks are found, is welded to the car-body. As Kawasaki-Sifang does not have the necessary facilities in Singapore to refit the trains with new car-bodies, the trains have to be shipped back to Kawasaki-Sifang's manufacturing base in China. The cause of the cracks was traced to a specific batch of aluminium material used for the manufacturing of the train bolsters only. Other parts of the trains are not affected.”
“Madam, both issues were discussed among the Ministry of Transport, Land Transport Authority and SMRT. The Public Transport Council was not involved. I am told that SMRT Board was aware. As for Temasek, what was communicated between SMRT and its shareholders is not something I am privy to.”
“The only other times where cracks appeared were in the Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit (LRT). These are Bombardier LRT trains, different from MRT trains. They found some cracks on the underframe of the cars. This was about last year or the year before. This was before my time. But I recall reading about it. These are old Bombardier trains. They should be Page: 23 coming to 20 years, 18 years or so. The nature of the cracks is quite different because here, with the Sifang trains, the trains are brand new. I sent to you and then after operation, we found some cracks. Whereas Bombardier trains, they were all right until last year or so, and then there were some cracks on the underframe. Bombardier also took it quite seriously even though this is now an 18-year-old or 17-year-old product. They sent their chief structural engineer down to take a look, inspect. First, they needed to establish if it was safe to operate, and they confirmed that it was safe to operate. Then, they also decided on what the next step should be. The next step requires regular inspection to see whether it is growing but, more importantly, how to fix the problem. In that instance, the recommendation of the Bombardier chief structural engineer is to weld it. Therefore, there is no need to send it anywhere. So, they can weld it, in situ, locally in Singapore. They worked out a work schedule on how to do it. I think most of the trains have already been fixed. The other train cars should all be completed by October this year, if I am not mistaken. Meanwhile, the trains are safe to be used.”
“No, the cracks are only on the bolsters. Each car train has two bolsters. This is North-South East-West lines, so each train has six cars. This only happens in some bolsters of some train cars. Were there other cracks elsewhere? No.”
“Sure, please. The other questions are also related to trains.”
“There is still a series of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) to be answered later.”
“That way, you preserve integrity, reputation and also, that is the way one should treat one's customers.”
“There is a defects liability of one year, then an extended warranty of four years. So, one plus four. In this instance, they decided that they will replace the entire bolsters, including the car body, and then restart the clock. It is fair that the extended warranty only applies to the new bolster and the car bodies. It will be asking too much to require the extended warranty to also cover the engines and other parts, which may not be produced by them. To answer the Page: 22 query, the extended warranty and the defects liability period only apply to the bolsters and the car bodies. Are there lessons from this incident? Yes, there are. I derived two lessons. First, sometimes, in public communications, providing more information is better than less information. My colleagues who have worked with me now for almost 40 years, know that I always prescribe the principle of over-provide rather than under-provide. This is something that I learnt, especially during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) period, in crisis communications. Because at that time, there was a lot of misinformation, a lot of lack of information, a lot of lies going on. And always coming out to share with the people what you know, including what you do not know and admit that "Yes, I do not know at this point in time. I will find out". And when I find out, I will let people know. That is always a better strategy than to try to keep information to your chest. The second lesson will be, I was struck by how the Kawasaki Manufacturer reacted to this problem: face the problem, get to the bottom of it, own it, not in denial and then go all out to do what is right, even if it means at great cost to the company.”
“As we know, when train cars are manufactured or assembled, a lot of testing will be done. During one of those tests, they found that one of the batteries was defective where gases were somehow accumulated in the housing that holds the battery covers. Because of the accumulation of gas, it exploded. Again, Kawasaki took note of that testing result and immediately decided with their Chinese partner to get a new supplier of the batteries. They also redesign the housing, so that this problem will not repeat. Indeed, it was the only incident of this kind which happened. There were a few cases of glass shattering, not the main glass for the car but on those side windows. Again, they checked. This was also during testing in China. They checked and they found that there was installation error. In other words, the workers could have done it better. Subsequently, when they reminded the workers to do the installation properly, we never heard of such incidents again.”
“In fact, in recent tenders, when we look at the bids, whether it is from Siemens, Bombardier, almost all of Page: 21 them now partner China to do the various things, very similar to what Kawasaki is doing with Sifang, I suppose, partly because of cost competitiveness, in order to bring down the cost of their total bids. The way Kawasaki dealt with this whole incident – I have not met them but based on reports and discussions I have had with LTA as well as SMRT – I have been very impressed with the way they dealt with this problem. There will always be problems, but at the end of the day, when confronted with a problem, how do you handle it? There are people who will deny, blame others, but in this case, Kawasaki took immediate attention, sent their engineers down, checked, identified the primary cause and, at the same time, worked out how to move from there. It is a very professional response to this problem which I find very impressive. They took responsibility and fulfilled the warranty period commitments. Although the cracks are not of major safety concern, they decided that a defect is a defect and they will replace it. Although the contract was for the bolster to be made in China, they said, from now on, all the bolsters will be made in Japan. They require the Chinese partner to also produce the new aluminium car bodies, weld it, assemble it and retest it. When they are sent back to Singapore, the defects liability and warranty clock will be restarted. In fact, we have now a very prolonged warranty period for the product. I find that gesture on the part of Kawasaki highly commendable and, if I may say, generous. The point about other defects of this train, such as battery. This was during the testing period.”
“Thank you. Those are good supplementary questions. Let me reply to the Member's questions in the order as I recall. First, Kawasaki. When they tendered for this, it was Kawasaki with the Chinese company Sifang. I think they are from Qingdao in the Shandong area. They jointly made a bid. But the main contractor, as far as we are concerned, is Kawasaki. In fact, the bulk of the design, how it is laid out, the engines and so on, were all from Kawasaki. The Chinese partner, essentially, has three roles. First, they produce the bolsters which are made in China; secondly, they produce the car bodies; and thirdly, they assemble. So, all the engines or whatever parts that go into a train – if they are not produced in China, and most of them are not – they will be sent to Qingdao and then Sifang Company will do the assembly, do the testing, and then they will export it to whoever is the customer, in this case, Singapore. As far as we are concerned, the party that we interact with is Kawasaki. In fact, Kawasaki set up an office here in Singapore for many years now because they were also the manufacturer, designer and producer of our first set of Kawasaki trains; in fact, of our first set of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains. The first lines, North-South East-West lines, were all based on Kawasaki trains. It is a very established, good company that has been around for many, many years. Their arrangement to do the various assembly work in China is not unique to Kawasaki.”
“There is a three-weekly check on the compressor as part and parcel of routine maintenance and the last time we checked on this particular compressor was only about 10 days ago, in the early part of August. So, we need to know what is the reason for this incident. There is a lesson here, even though it was about train. Old assets are not the same as new assets and, therefore, you have to pay particular attention to maintenance. But the earlier part of the life history of the components is also important. Like a human body. If you look after your body well from Day 1, when you are 40-50 years old, you can probably still maintain pretty good form, but still a 40-year-old is not the same as a 14-year-old, and, likewise, it is the same with trains.”
“So, they have to be sent over to China and then to be welded to brand new car bodies and the manufacturer has to re-assemble all the engines and so on, to the train. The whole process would take about four months, including testing. Having completed this whole re-assembly, you have to test the trains to make sure they are safe and functioning as required. But because each time we can only release one train, so we have to queue up the trains and we have a work schedule that stretches all the way to beyond 2020. Recently, we sat down with the manufacturer and asked to speed this up a bit. The possibility is that we can release two trains at a time in the later part of next year, when more new trains come in. We are working on that basis. With that, we could speed up the whole process to complete by 2019. The query on freon gas. This has nothing to do with the new Kawasaki trains, but yes, it happened yesterday. It is an old train. This is the first-generation Kawasaki train; not this current generation, which is having the bolsters problem. The train and air-con compressors are all 20-odd years old by now. That is the trouble with old parts. Sometimes, little problems happen. Preliminary investigation suggests that there was a leakage of the oil from the compressor which resulted in overheating of the compressor. Subsequently, that caused the evaporation of the freon, which was then released. Page: 20 We are still checking. This morning, the engineers are going to pull apart the whole compressor to see what caused the leakage from the compressor shaft seal. There is a seal which keeps the oil in place. We need to know why it failed.”
“We handled the defective bolsters in such a way that we make sure that the planned capacity expansion of the North-South East-West line will not be affected. As Members know, 26 trains were found to have defective bolsters. Had the manufacturer wanted LTA to return all the 26 trains in one go, then our plan to expand the capacity of the North-South East-West lines would have been affected. That is why, in 2013, LTA worked out a schedule to which the manufacturer accepted that they will only take one train at a time. In that way, the capacity will not be affected too much because all operators of train service would allow for at least a 10% buffer. For example, for North-South East-West lines, although we have 140-plus trains, only 124 are fully launched at peak hours. We do not need more than 124. Our plan was to expand 124 deployed trains to about more than 150 by the year 2019; which requires the North-South East-West line to expand its fleet from 140- to 170-plus. All the new trains will continue to come. But because we would only release one train at a time for the manufacturer to fix the bolsters, it does not affect our buffer and, therefore, it does not affect our planned capacity expansion of the North-South East-West lines. To reiterate the point, this is also the reason why the whole process of rectifying, seemingly, takes such a long time. Actually, to fix the bolsters only requires about three to four months. It involves the following activities. We send the trains back. The manufacturer has to dismantle the trains, remove the bolsters. The bolsters are actually welded to the car body. Meanwhile, a new set of bolsters are being manufactured, this time not in China but in Japan.”
“Then, I shall come to it when the turn comes up. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) did not detect any cracks when it took possession of the trains and when it was testing them in 2011. The hairline cracks appeared only about two years after they were put into operation. It is not uncommon for new trains to develop minor defects after some time, because they are subject to different levels of stress during testing and when they are deployed for actual operations. LTA did not publicise the hairline cracks for three reasons. First, they did not pose any safety risk to commuters. In fact, I wanted to reply to Question No 12 so that I can elaborate on this point, but we shall come to it later. Second, the manufacturer took immediate and full responsibility for the defects, committed to fully replace the bolsters with a new set made in Japan, weld them to the new car bodies and re-assemble the trains in China. All these remedial actions would be fully paid for by the manufacturer. Third, the manufacturer accepted LTA's replacement work schedule which is deliberately formulated to ensure that train services and capacity levels are not affected by this incident. Had any of these factors not been satisfactorily dealt with, LTA would have publicised the defects. Meanwhile, we continue to monitor the affected trains closely, including those which had Page: 19 been rectified by the manufacturer. Whether there is a case to pursue compensation, I leave it to the LTA Board to assess.”
“Madam, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 8, 9, 10 from Mr Sitoh Yih Pin as well as Question No 12 from Assoc Prof Daniel Goh, please?”
“Investigations are ongoing. But preliminarily, reports from SMRT point to the fact that the Train Stop Antenna system was faulty. The Train Stop Antenna system controls the start and stop of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train at each station. As the system was faulty, the train did not detect that it was arriving at the three stations from Jelapang to Bukit Panjang and, hence, did not stop. The safety of the passengers was not compromised during the incident. The Bukit Panjang LRT is protected by the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System. This ensures that trains do not exceed the maximum operating speed of 55 kilometres per hour, and that a minimum safe distance is kept between any two trains at all times. ATP operates independently of the Train Stop Antenna system. The ATP system was functioning properly, and halted the train before Phoenix station, as it had detected another train ahead. As the ATP system is safety-critical, it has built-in redundancy. If one ATP antenna malfunctions, the back-up will immediately take over. The Land Transport Authority and SMRT are working with the manufacturer, Bombardier, on the possibility of incorporating a similar redundancy into the Train Stop Antenna system.”
“There are several ways for commuters to raise an alert or stop the train in an emergency. First, they can contact the train captain, station staff or the Operations Control Centre (OCC) using the intercom units inside the trains and on station platforms. The Light Rail Transit (LRT) passengers can also call the OCC using their mobile phones. The OCC contact numbers are displayed inside the LRT trains. Second, commuters can use the emergency stop buttons on station platforms, the intercom units inside Mass Rapid Transit trains, and the "Emergency Next Station Stop" buttons inside Bukit Panjang LRT trains, to bring the train to a safe stop. The train operators are required to ensure that these mechanisms function properly, and that train captains, and station and OCC staff respond in a timely manner. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the operators review these safety facilities and procedures periodically. LTA is currently investigating the Bukit Panjang LRT incident.”
“Our footpaths are generally about 1.5 metres to 1.8 metres wide, but can be as wide as 3.6 metres where there is high pedestrian traffic. New footpaths along roads will be at least 1.8 metres wide. For existing footpaths, we will widen them where we can. Footpaths can be found nearly everywhere. Allowing cyclists to share them with pedestrians is helpful as we promote and facilitate safe cycling. However, we clearly prefer dedicated cycling paths and will continue to expand the network of cycling paths in all our Housing and Development Board towns. As we have said before, cyclists must be considerate and gracious on footpaths and always give way to pedestrians. This is for their safety and that of other path users. The Active Mobility Advisory Panel had released to the public its full report and recommendations in March this year. As announced at the Ministry's Committee of Supply debate, the Government has accepted in full the panel's recommendations. We will need some time to put them into legislation. This should be done by the end of this year. In the meantime, the Land Transport Authority, together with the Traffic Police, National Parks Board and Town Councils, will be stepping up our enforcement and education efforts, including through posters and pamphlets.”
“As the Electric Vehicles (EV) Car-Sharing Scheme is a trial to test EVs in fleet-based operations, the Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) used to register the EVs will not be drawn from the COE quota.”
“A total of 137 bus stops are not yet wheelchair-accessible. This is less than 3% of our 4,700 bus stops. The site conditions of these bus stops make conversion challenging. For example, new footpaths may have to be built and major drains covered. In extremis, the entire bus stop and bus bay may have to be rebuilt. The Land Transport Authority is targeting to upgrade all these bus stops by 2020. The implementation schedule takes into consideration various factors, including if consecutive bus stops along the same road are wheelchair-inaccessible.”
“Street lighting in Singapore is provided in accordance with international standards for road safety. Reducing the level of lighting will endanger motorists and pedestrians. Light pollution is naturally highest in densely populated cities. Singapore is the only city-state included in the study, which could explain our high ranking.”
“Ridership is a key consideration in deciding whether to build an additional Mass Rapid Transit station. In this case, while there will be some increase in ridership with the new Build-To-Order units, it is still insufficient to support a new station for now. We will continue to monitor developments in the area and will reconsider our position if and when the ridership case becomes stronger. Meanwhile, to serve the additional residents in the area, three new bus services have been introduced under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme. This should be sufficient for now. We will further increase bus services and capacity as necessary.”
“The Land Transport Authority will adjust traffic light timings at some of the junctions along Airport Road to help ease the congestion at this exit. We have increased the capacity of the Mass Rapid Transit North-East Line and also introduced more bus services in the northeast, and would encourage motorists to switch to public transport.”
“The average price of the winning Certificate of Entitlement (COE) bid in the last three bidding exercises was $52,601 for Category A, $57,167 for Category B, $48,694 for Category C, $6,173 for Category D, and $57,235 for Category E. The average of the highest COE bid, after removing outlier bids which were likely due to errors, was $64,296 for Category A, $79,629 for Category B, $60,967 for Category C, $10,000 for Category D, and $69,130 for Category E. This comparison, however, is not very meaningful. The vast majority of successful bids are clustered within 10% of the final strike price. The idea of a pay-as-you-bid system was last reviewed in 2013. Economists, such as Nanyang Technological University professor Ng Yew Kwang, advised that a pay-as-you-bid system may not necessarily result in lower COE prices as clearing prices would still be determined by demand and supply. In addition, they pointed that a pay-as-you-bid system encourages gaming, in that bidders will be constantly adjusting their bids in accordance with how they think others will bid so that they do not end up over-paying. Market insiders will have a clear advantage. In contrast, the current COE auction system encourages a bidder to submit a single bid at the true price that he is willing to pay. This is simpler and fairer to car buyers who are less familiar with the market.”
“Today, there are already 66 kilometres of sheltered walkways connecting our public transport nodes to key amenities, such as shopping malls, as well as to offices and residences. The Land Transport Authority is adding another 140 kilometres as part of its Walk2Ride programme. Furthermore, from 1 July 2016, private developers must submit a Walking and Cycling Plan when applying to the Urban Redevelopment Authority for planning permission. This will ensure that they provide, where appropriate, for sheltered connections to bus stops and Mass Rapid Transit stations in the design or redevelopment of their buildings.”
“The Land Transport Authority's (LTA's) trial installations of noise barriers for roads will be completed by the end of this year. If effective, we will prioritise their installation at locations based on noise level and proximity to residential housing. LTA follows vehicular noise emission standards set and regulated by the National Environment Agency and these are aligned with international norms.”