Car-body
replacement for five out of 26 defective trains complete:
LTA
SINGAPORE: Following recent media reports about defective trains
being shipped back to its manufacturer for repairs, the Land
Transport Authority on Wednesday (Jul 6) issued a statement
reiterating that trains on the North-South and East-West Lines are
safe for service. The statement is reproduced below:
The Land Transport Authority would like to address some of the
issues related to the 26 North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL)
trains that have been the subject of recent media and online
discussion.
The Land Transport Authority awarded Contract 151A in 2009 to
Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang to design, manufacture,
and deliver 35 new trains for the NSEWL. The trains were
progressively put into service from February 2011, following
rigorous testing of their safety and reliability.
Battery and Draughtscreen Issues
Prior to the commencement of passenger service, all new trains
arriving in Singapore would be put through testing and
commissioning. The same was done for the KHI-CSR Sifang trains.
During such testing, there was an incident on one train where the
cover of the train battery housing flew open due to a build-up of
gases. The manufacturer took immediate action to replace its
supplier and improved the design of the battery housing for all
affected trains.
Incidents of cracks of the draughtscreen on five trains were
also discovered. These were found to be caused by errors during the
installation process and unrelated to the hairline cracks found on
the 26 trains’ car-bodies.
It is not unusual to detect some defects on new trains. We then
take appropriate action to have them rectified by the
manufacturer.
Hairline Cracks
In July 2013, during a routine inspection of the trains,
hairline cracks on the surface of the car-body bolster were found.
22 of the 26 trains were in passenger service then. LTA immediately
carried out further inspections. No cracks were found on other
components of the trains. (Please see Appendix 1 and 2 for the
location of the car-body bolster and an example of a hairline
crack.)
Laboratory tests showed that these hairline cracks were due to
localised impurity in the aluminium car-body material that occurred
during the manufacturing process. LTA engineers and its contractor
assessed that the hairline cracks would not affect the operational
safety of the trains. To confirm this, LTA further sought the
opinion of an independent third-party assessor, TUV Rheinland,
which concurred that the trains were safe to operate.
Due to the nature of the defect, the most effective way of
addressing it is to replace the entire car-body shell. As the
trains were under warranty, we required the contractor to replace
the entire car body shell. Hence, since July 2014, the affected
trains have been progressively sent back to the factory for
rectification works . The costs of the shipping are borne by the
contractor.
To ensure that this unexpected occurrence did not affect our
train deployment, LTA has been working closely with SMRT. The
replacement of a train car body is time consuming and
labour-intensive, with each car body replacement taking up to four
months. Hence, to minimise the impact on our train operations in
Singapore as well as the lack of facilities and space for repair
works of this nature at our depots, only one train is sent back to
the factory in China at any one time. We did not send all of the
trains back at once as they were still fit and safe for service and
we wanted to ensure sufficient train-availability for
commuters.
Starting next year, with the arrival of more new trains for
NSEWL and when trains currently undergoing resignalling are ready,
LTA will be able to send two trains concurrently for replacement
works. This will speed up the rectification programme and its
completion can be brought forward to 2019.
As of today, the car-body replacement for five of the 26 trains
has been completed. The car-body of the sixth train is being
replaced. As per safety protocols, LTA, together with the
contractor, will continue to carry out rigorous inspections to
ensure that all trains are safe for service.
TRAIN SERVICE AVAILABILITY WILL NOT BE AFFECTED:
SMRT
In a statement to the media,
public transport operator SMRT said the decision to send the
defective trains back to the manufacturer for repairs will not
affect train service availability or frequency.
The statement is reproduced below:
Passenger safety is paramount to SMRT, and under no circumstance
will this be compromised. Any train that is assessed to be
defective or unfit for passenger service is not put into service.
The C151A trains which were discovered to have hairline cracks are
the newest in our fleet serving the North-South East-West Lines. We
have been closely monitoring the situation with LTA and the
manufacturer, and the defects have been deemed to be not
safety-critical. The decision to send the trains back to the
manufacturer for rectification will not affect train service
availability or frequency, as these are being done in small
batches.
- CNA
