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

In the article “Dubbed the ‘best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system”, Lee (2015) stated that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan claims Hong Kong's MTR is the ‘best in class'. Mr. Khaw added on that SMRT and SBS transit should adopt Hong Kong’s rail system as it has been privatized, which enabled MTRC to allocate more profits to rail “maintenance, renewals and service improvements”, comparatively to 19% of Singapore’s rail revenue.  According to the article, the MTR has 155 stations over 221km island wide and maintenance is conducted once every 3 days via a mobile transportation unit that uses “ultrasonic techniques” to scan for irregularities. In addition, MTRC also has an Operations Control Centre (OCC) that monitors the entire system which is paramount to the organization's prompt response to emergencies.
While it is essential to use benchmarking to improve Singapore's rail reliability standards, Singapore should be cautious about adopting MTRC's performance measures wholesale due to the differences in the availability of travel routes as well as the revenue generated by both countries.
Firstly, the geographic and the operations of Singapore trains are the two main reasons for the differences in the availability of travel routes. Theseira (2015) stated that there are differences in the geographies of countries, thus if the country has the capability for expansion and resources to build alternative traveling routes, it would open out more options available to the commuters to travel around. He added that when there is a disruption in Singapore, commuters are unable to take a different route to detour due to its limitations. In this case, 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 methods of generating revenue differ between both countries, as Singapore is only reaping revenue from the commuters and through the rail system. However, Hong Kong does not only generate revenue from commuters, they are also able to reap the dividend from developing properties and it is able to give MTRC the advantage in their spending power for their rail system. Lee (2015) mentioned that “on a yearly basis, Hong Kong MTR spends 37% 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.” Thus, given that Hong Kong’s capability on generating funds, their spending power would be different from Singapore as they would be able to allocate more resources towards rail system’s maintenance.
In conclusion, for Singapore to become the ’best in class’ and to improve its rail reliability standard, they should look into creating more availability in traveling routes and sourcing for potential investments that would allow them to generate more revenue to be set aside for maintenance and upgrading plans. Therefore, Singapore can still benchmark from MTRC’s performance measures, but should only apply the relevant points rather than adopting it wholesale.

Reference
Lee, Min Kok (2015). Dubbed 'the Best in Class': 6 Things about Hong Kong's MTR Rail System. The Straits Times, Retrieved from
www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/dubbed-the-best-in-class-6-things-about-hong-kongs-mtr-rail-system.
Lim, K. (2017). Efforts to improve train performance see 'steady results' so far: SMRT. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from 
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/efforts-to-improve-train-performance-see-steady-results-so-far-8787192
Lim, K. (2015). Singapore's train system: What needs to be done to ensure a smoother ride? Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s-train-system-what-needs-to-be-done-to-ensure-a-smoot-8246388
Yang, C. (2017). Commuters feeling frustrated after recent train delays. The Straits Times. Retrieved from

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/commuters-feeling-frustrated-after-recent-train-delays

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