Train testing could have been limited to weekend, says Transport Minister

As reported in The Straits Times, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan has commented on Monday's North-East Line (NEL) disruption, writing in a blog post, "In hindsight, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) agreed that it could have limited the testing to only Saturday night/Sunday morning, rather than Sunday night, eating into Monday morning."

A rogue new train responsible for the disruption on the NEL on Monday morning was being tested during engineering hours, before revenue service that morning. Weighing in on the incident, Mr. Khaw said this was a scheduling detail which the LTA and operator, SBS Transit have learnt through this episode. The new train that was being tested pulled a wire on the NEL's overhead power system, causing a disruption on Oct 26^th that lasted nearly two hours and affected the morning peak period.

Mr. Khaw asked rhetorically in a blog post on Friday why the train testing was done during a major exam period. Citing an explanation by LTA, he said that testing was not a daily affair and was done progressively - first during engineering hours over weekends, then during off-peak hours and finally when ready, into peak hour traffic.

While he did not say if the LTA would restrict their testing schedule to Saturday nights and Sunday mornings only following Monday's breakdown, he said it was a lesson learnt. "Since breakdowns cannot be completely eliminated, we must be prepared for Murphy's Law and expect the worst," he noted.