SMRT’s apology to cost S$900m

Following service disruptions that inconvenienced commuters, SMRT announced its assets renewal and upgrading plans.

Mr Tan Ek Kia, SMRT Executive Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer, said the company has been working hard to address the causes of recent disruptions, and is embarking on a major plan to renew and upgrade assets across the system.

“As our MRT system ages, faults will arise from time to time. We want to assure everyone that we have a robust management system to identify faults; and that we thoroughly investigate each and every fault, learn what happened, and ensure that all learnings are incorporated into our maintenance cycle,” explained Mr Tan.

SMRT’s renewal and upgrading measures, according to Mr Tan, are expected to cost about $900 million in total. The company is discussing with LTA on cost-sharing arrangements.

Meanwhile Mr Tan admitted that SMRT needs to further improve its incident response procedures, particularly in informing the public about disruptions and helping commuters affected in the system.

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