SMRT to be
fined a record S$5.4m for July 7 MRT breakdown
SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) intends to impose
a financial penalty of S$5.4 million on transport operator SMRT for
the system-wide disruption on the North-South and East-West Lines
(NSEWL) on July 7, it announced on Wednesday (Sep 23).
This is the highest financial penalty imposed on an operator
since two MRT service disruptions in December 2011, which affected
about 221,000 commuters, for which SMRT was fined S$2 million. The
fine will go to the Public Transport Fund to help needy families
with their public transport expenditures, LTA stated in a media
release.
The authority said it found SMRT fully responsible for the
incident on Jul 7. "SMRT’s maintenance lapses resulted in a
system-wide disruption on the NSEWL for more than two hours during
the evening peak period. This greatly inconvenienced 413,000
commuters travelling on the MRT network’s most heavily-utilised
lines," LTA said.
“SMRT had also failed to meet requirements under the Code of
Practice for incident management. They failed to inform LTA of the
intermittent traction power tripping in a timely manner."
SMRT had earlier said "weak electrical resistance" of the train
network's third rail insulator was the cause for the
disruption.
Following a media briefing on Jul 29, LTA together with
independent experts from Japan and Sweden, identified an ongoing
water leak in the tunnel close to the insulator as a contributor to
the weak electrical resistance.
“The leak, and inadequate maintenance, had resulted in extensive
mineral deposits on the insulator and trackside equipment,” LTA
said. “Laboratory tests found high chloride content in samples of
the water seepage and in the deposits. The consultants deduced that
the conductive mineral deposits, together with the wet tunnel
environment, had significantly reduced the effectiveness of the
insulator.”
LTA added that as a result, electricity flowed from the
insulator to the ground, resulting in a higher than normal voltage
between the running rail and the ground that eventually sparked the
power tripping.
MAINTENANCE LAPSES BY SMRT TO BLAME
LTA concluded that the incident could have been prevented if
SMRT had rectified the tunnel water seepage as required under LTA’s
Code of Practice for maintenance. Under the Code, SMRT has to
attend to any tunnel water dripping directly on trackside
equipment, such as the third rail, immediately upon discovery. If
grouting works cannot be carried out, the operator has to divert
the water seepage away from the trackside equipment.
According to LTA, SMRT had detected seepage in the tunnel
section in question on its routine track patrols in mid-June 2015.
However, these leaks were attended to only in end-July. The extent
of mineral deposits on the trackside equipment also shows that
SMRT’s maintenance measures had been inadequate, it added.
Mr Chew Men Leong, chief executive of LTA said: “After a full
and comprehensive investigation, LTA concludes that the disruption
is due to maintenance lapses by SMRT. LTA hence intends to impose a
high financial penalty on SMRT in light of the seriousness of the
incident, and given that several hundred thousands of train
commuters, as well as motorists and bus commuters, were
inconvenienced by this disruption. We require SMRT to review and
improve their maintenance regime to prevent future
occurrences.”
LTA added that it has asked SMRT to provide a detailed response
and rectification programme to address the findings. To prevent a
similar recurrence, SMRT has started replacing all third rail
insulators since the incident, starting with insulators which have
shown signs of electrical resistance weakness.
The authority is also increasing its oversight of the operators’
maintenance processes with more frequent audits. It has audited
both SMRT and SBS Transit’s maintenance of the tunnels and track
for the NSEWL, North East Line and Circle Line, and asked the
operators to follow up on the issues identified. Another audit is
underway, it said.
- CNA/xk