SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA), SMRT and SBS Transit will form a rail reliability task force to address service disruptions, as well as develop and implement "immediate solutions".

The task force will be chaired by LTA chief executive Ng Lang and include SMRT Group CEO Ngien Hoon Ping, SBS Transit Group CEO Jeffrey Sim and technical specialists drawn from across the rail sector.

It will report its findings to Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow regularly and submit its final recommendations by the end of the year, LTA and the public transport operators said in a joint news release.

The task force will review recent train disruption incidents to identify components involved that are approaching end-of-life and require replacement, upgrading or increased maintenance.

It will look into bringing forward the renewal programme for the North East Line (NEL) power system, while reviewing ways to strengthen the signalling system for the NEL and Circle Line in the short term before renewal is due.

At the same time, full technical audits of the maintenance and operations of critical systems will be carried out.

These include a review of asset conditions, maintenance processes, operational and redundancy procedures, as well as staff training and competency.

"The task force will also review service recovery processes with the view of reducing the impact of service delays to our commuters," said LTA and the transport operators.

"The task force will review procedures to improve service recovery speeds, such as reducing the number of detrainments which impact service recovery time, without compromising on commuter safety."

Training regimes will also be reviewed to ensure that officers on the ground can adequately perform service recovery during service incidents.

LTA and the operators noted that the government has earlier set aside additional S$1 billion over the next five years to further strengthen rail capabilities, scale up technology adoption and support skills upgrading for workers.

Mr Siow said that he had tasked LTA "to work together with the train operators to speed up asset upgrades, conduct joint technical audits on the critical parts of the rail system, and improve service recovery procedures".

LTA was also asked to share more information with the public on disruptions as they are investigated and the steps taken to address them.

LTA and train operators to form rail reliability task force to address service disruptions