NEW FIGURES DIRECTLY ADDRESS COMMUTER IMPACT: ANALYST
Welcoming the latest move, Associate Professor Raymond Ong, a transport infrastructure researcher at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said that the existing MKBF indicator “doesn’t tell the commuter too much info”.
While the indicator tells the commuter how long normal operations lasted between failures, it does not give an indication of the severity of each disruption.
Agreeing, Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said that the existing MKBF indicator does not distinguish how many people are impacted by the disruptions.
“If a train breaks down with hardly any commuters on board, did it really happen? It didn’t affect many people, so people will not notice,” he said.
“On the other hand, a breakdown at 8.30am at Punggol will affect thousands of commuters.”
In this way, there could be a good MKBF, but the commuter experience could still be bad if the failures happened at the “worst times”, he added.
Assoc Prof Ong said the new figures “directly address” the potential commuter impact, such as in gauging the percentage of train services delivered, whether they were punctual, and the number of commuters affected in severe disruptions.
“It is a very generic understanding, but it allows the passenger to relate,” he said.
Asked whether the figures, being closely bunched between 96 and 100 per cent for Singapore’s MRT line, would not have much meaning to the commuter, Assoc Prof Ong said that it cannot be forgotten that trains are “supposed to be travelling at 100 per cent”.
He said that the comparison has to be made with other countries’ metro lines for it to be meaningful. He noted that several Asian cities have figures higher than Singapore’s.
He added that while Singapore has managed to keep up healthy figures alongside its Asian counterparts, older metro lines like those in New York and London are seeing lower percentages in the low 90s and even 80s.
These figures show how issues such as ageing infrastructure and a lack of manpower, for instance, can cause the figure to dip.
“Do not take these numbers (in Singapore) for granted,” he said.
As to whether it would be meaningful for LTA to set a target for the new figures, as it has done for the MKBF, Assoc Prof Ong said that it is more important to understand the factors that can cause the different indicators to fluctuate.
Fluctuations could be due to “inherent factors”, such as the maintenance and operating systems of the trains, and how public transport operators react and recover when there is a disruption.
“Understanding the cause is more important than putting a target or minimum percentage then trying to achieve it,” he said.