Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system (Reader's Response First Draft)

In the article “Dubbed the ‘best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system”, Lee (2015) reported that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan claims that Hong Kong’s MTR is the ‘best in class’. Mr Khaw then further complimented Hong Kong’s rail system stating that SMRT and SBS transit should adopt Hong Kong’s practices. Examples are the Hong Kong government’s privatization of the MTR Corporation (MTRC) in 2000, which led to a decrease in budget and an increase in competency of the public transportation. This provides room for the MTRC to allocate 37% of their profits to rail “maintenance, renewals and service improvements”, which is adequate as compared to Singapore’s 19%, as claimed by Mr. Khaw. While the MTR has 155 stations across nine prime travelling lines over 221km, maintenance is conducted via a mobile transportation unit that scans for irregularities through “ultrasonic techniques” once every 3 days. This is more extensive than Singapore’s inspection routine despite Hong Kong’s lines being longer. The MTRC also has an Operations Control Centre (OCC) that monitors the entire system which is paramount to the organisation’s prompt response to emergencies. Therefore, with the enhanced monitoring system, trains in Hong Kong are more effective and efficient than in Singapore.

 Although developments are made for Singapore’s MRT by following the practices of Hong Kong’s MTR, the idea is less feasible due to the limited travelling routes available, under-investments in maintenance and incapability to maintain the accuracy of train arrivals.

Firstly, Singapore aims to adopt the reliability of MTRC trains, however, it is challenging as there are limited travelling routes, due to two main reasons which is the geographic of Singapore and the operations of Singapore trains. According to Prof Walter Theseira, a Senior Lecturer at SIM University, stated that “A lot of that happened because the geographies of the cities are different, so you naturally have a bit more redundancy than you have in Singapore. In Singapore, we don't have that, so when you have a two-hour disruption, it's basically a nation-level disaster, very different from a one- or two- hour disruption on the London Underground, where a lot of people can get around it." In this case, without the redundancy, commuters are forced to either wait for the train service to resume or exit the station to use a different mode of transport to get to their destination.

 Secondly, the under-investments in maintenance is evident through the comparison between SMRT and MTRC. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) had invested S$12.5 million to develop manpower for the industry while MTRC spent HK$6 billion (S$1.09 billion) on its upgrading which includes state-of-the-art signalling systems and RFID technology. On top of that, MTRC also reap dividend from developing property which allows more profit to be used for their maintenance and upgrading plans.  Prof Lee Der Horng, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at National University of Singapore, added that on a yearly basis, Hong Kong MTR spends 37 per cent of its total revenue on repairing and maintenance. He also said it is able to spend more than SMRT is due to the “overall design” of Singapore's business model in the rail service. Comparing both countries, MTRC definitely have a higher expenditure and capabilities to reap more revenue than SMRT. 

Lastly, SMRT’s objective is to reduce the waiting timings between trains through the new re-signalling upgrades, but it had faced with technical problems such as the platform screen doors are unable to close. Train operator SMRT and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) stated that “unlike new lines where the signalling system can be fully tested before being put into service, SMRT will have to continue full-day checks on the NSL even as service is ongoing.” Thus, unexpected delays or disruption may result in longer waiting times and causing the whole system to breakdown.
In conclusion, for Singapore to become ‘best in class’, they would require better resources and funding for maintenance as well as upgrading purposes. This will eventually reduce the waiting time or maintain the accuracy of train arrivals, possibly leading to zero or little train disruptions.
Reference
Lee, Min Kok (2015, October 29). “Dubbed 'the Best in Class': 6 Things about Hong Kong's MTR Rail System.” The Straits Times, Retrieved September 20, 2017, from
www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/dubbed-the-best-in-class-6-things-about-hong-kongs-mtr-rail-system.

Lim, K. (2017, April 24). Efforts to improve train performance see 'steady results' so far: SMRT. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from 
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/efforts-to-improve-train-performance-see-steady-results-so-far-8787192

Lim, K. (2015, December 20). Singapore's train system: What needs to be done to ensure a smoother ride?Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s-train-system-what-needs-to-be-done-to-ensure-a-smoot-8246388
Yang, C. (2017, June 29). Commuters feeling frustrated after recent train delays. The Straits Times. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from

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