Actions Against Senior Management and Technical Personnel for Lapses Reported by Transport Safety Investigation Bureau for September 2024 Train Incident

Written Reply to Parliamentary Question 

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Acting Minister for Transport in light of the report of the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau on the SMRT train fault in September 2024 finding that SMRT extended the overhaul interval of the affected train without a detailed engineering risk assessment, what specific actions have been taken against the senior management and technical personnel responsible for these lapses.

Reply by Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow: 

1.     The sole objective of the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB)’s rail safety investigations is the prevention of rail accidents and incidents. The safety investigations do not seek to apportion blame or liability.

2.     For the September 2024 East-West Line disruption, Land Transport Authority (LTA) imposed a financial penalty of $2.4 million on SMRT for breach of licence under the Rapid Transit Systems Act. LTA also issued a direction to SMRT to invest a minimum of $600,000 to strengthen its capabilities, and address areas of improvement from the incident so as to improve service reliability for commuters.

3.     As neither TSIB nor LTA’s investigation found any criminal wrongdoing on the part of any individual, there are no grounds for Government to take further action against specific individuals. LTA does not interfere in human resource decisions that rail operators may take in response to our investigation findings.