SINGAPORE - The Land Transport Authority (LTA), SMRT and SBS
Transit conducted a ground deployment exercise on Wednesday morning
to test their enhanced incident management plans for large-scale
train service disruptions.
The exercise simulated multiple power trips on the East-West Line
(EWL) during the morning peak hours, which resulted in the
suspension of train operations along the entire line. Transport
Minister Khaw Boon Wan attended the exercise which started at
9.30am.
The emergency drill, codenamed "Exercise Greyhound", is part of a
series of regular exercises conducted.
The exercise was conducted while regular train services operated as
normal and commuters were unaffected.
The operators also tested additional measures to improve the
capacity of alternative transport options and information
dissemination. This included regular trunk services that ply the
rail corridor and special shuttle bus services.
These special services are activated in the event of multiple
line-wide service disruptions, and will bring commuters from the
major towns in the northern, western and eastern parts of Singapore
to the key interchange stations and vice versa.
During the exercise, the LTA also trailed the newly installed
beacon lights at Tiong Bahru station. When activated, these lights
signal to bus captains and commuters that free bus services were
activated.
Called "Exercise Greyhound", LTA also said it used the exercise to
review operators' preparedness in the four areas: activation of
free boarding on regular bus services; activation of special
shuttle buses from key MRT interchanges to the heartlands;
activation of the operators' staff as Crisis Support Team (by SMRT)
or Goodwill Ambassadors (by SBS Transit) to manage the surge in
commuters; and availability of leaflets at SMRT stations to guide
commuters.
The "breakdown" was enacted at Buona Vista, Outram Park and Tiong
Bahru, operators were also tested on their public communications
efforts to inform the public at unaffected rail lines - Circle
Line, Downtown Line and North East Line.
LTA's chief executive, Chew Men Leong said: " Today's exercise has
been very productive in showing us what is working well and where
we will continue to strengthen our incident management processes.
For example, we have identified more ways to get information out
faster at stations and this will be a main action item."