Transcript of Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance Mr Jeffrey Siow's Remarks at Ten Mile Junction Depot on the Progress of Bukit Panjang LRT Renewal Works and Oct 2026 Rail Reliability Report

1.           Good morning everybody. Thank you for coming down to Bukit Panjang LRT (BPLRT) Depot today. I am here to mark a significant milestone in the upgrading project that we have been working on for the Bukit Panjang LRT.

2.           We’ve been working on this project for several years. It started in 2018 and it was a comprehensive improvement of the system. It included replacing the trains, improving the signalling system, as well as completing the final bits of the power rail replacement, which will be completed by the end of this year.

3.           As this is being done and having been completed, we will experience better and more reliable rides on the LRT. In fact, we have been seeing this in the reliability results for the BPLRT, with Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF) having gone up eight times since the project started in 2018.

4.           This is a project that's very close to my heart. When I was in the Ministry of Transport (MOT) as a civil servant in 2017, we made this decision to upgrade the LRT, and having spent this amount of time looking at how the project has been progressing, I think we are very happy that the team has managed to achieve the results that we want.

5.           We have been doing these upgrading projects across the whole of the MRT and LRT systems. You would recall that Senior Minister of State Sun Xueling recently announced the completion of a similar upgrading project for the Sengkang-Punggol LRT, where we were expanding the capacity of the depot, so that we can run more two-car trains, with a full-fleet of 41 two-car trains. We have done that, the residents of Punggol and of course here at Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang, will enjoy better rides. 

6.           Now, as our MRT system continues to grow, our emphasis has been shifting towards more and better maintenance, because we have more assets – some of them will age, and we have to keep up the work that enables us to maintain a high level of reliability. Since last year, our reliability results have been very good. We are going to issue the October 2026 Rail Reliability Report this afternoon, which will show that we are going to cross two million MKBF for six consecutive months. This is a sustained period of good performance, and it's quite unprecedented. We are going to reach an MKBF of more than three million, which we have never done before. And I think it shows that we have been working really hard and making sure that the reliability of the system is good.

7.           The MKBF will not continue to go up forever. This is because we measure MKBF on a rolling 12-month basis. So, when a line does not have a disruption for an entire year, it means that its MKBF has hit the theoretical maximum. And in this case, for the North East Line, we have not had a disruption for a year. More broadly, we have a very large train system. Train systems are complicated systems, with many components and many parts. It is invariable that sometimes, occasionally, there will be faults in the systems, or components that are not working, and there will be a delay or a disruption. This is inevitable. But we will work very hard to minimise these occurrences.

8.           It is also the case that we prioritise safety, so even when there is a small fault, we stop the system. For example, if the door cannot close, we stop the (incident) train, as well as the trains before and after the (incident) train. Then, there is a period of time where we try our very best to recover the system quickly, and there will be some inconvenience to commuters. But the reason why we do this is because the safety of the commuters comes first. We will continue, as I said, to minimise these incidents from happening through good maintenance and making sure that the system continues to work well.

9.           Now finally, of course, I want to thank the MRT operators and LRT operators, SMRT and SBST. They have been working very closely with the Land Transport Authority. We set up the Rail Reliability Taskforce last year and they have been working very closely – having monthly meetings, planning for maintenance, planning for renewal works and really being aligned as part of the One Transport Family to focus on rail reliability. I think they have done a good job.

10.        And of course the people who deserve the most credit for these good results are our public transport workers – the many Singaporeans, many men and women who work every single day in the quiet hours of the night to make sure that the system can run well the next day, the next morning, every day. They are the unsung heroes, they are the people who have made this result possible. I'm very proud of them and that's why I'm here. I want to thank them personally to let them know that they have done a good job. But I want to assure commuters that reliability will continue to be our focus, and we will make sure to keep the MRT and LRT systems as smooth running and as well-performing as we can. Thank you.

Chinese Soundbites

谢谢大家今天来到武吉班让。我们刚刚完成武吉班让轻轨的更新工程。这工程我们已经做了几年，从2018年开始。在工程的进展过程中，轻轨的可靠度也在渐渐地进步。我们武吉班让和蔡厝港的乘客和居民都可以享受比较舒适、比较可靠的旅程。我们整体地铁的可靠度也在这几年内有很大的进步。

在此，我要感谢我们公共交通的工作人员，他们很努力地把我们地铁维修工作做好。当然，我也要感谢乘客的理解和支持。我们会继续努力，把我们的工作做好，把这些维修工程都完整地做好。谢谢。