Dear The Real Singapore,
I refer to the article: "NZ AND AUS TRAIN OPERATORS FIND DANGEROUS ASBESTOS ON MADE-IN-CHINA TRAINS"
Can LTA reassure us the Made-in-China trains are safe, including absence of asbestos?
I feel deeply concerned by the report by NZ Herald (Friday, 28 Feb) that 40 of the NZ state-owned company’s trains were taken out of action following the discovery of the potentially deadly material in a soundproofing compound inside one of the vehicles.
This, after an earlier November 2013 report by ABC that 10 freight locomotives made by China Southern Rail were also pulled from service in Australia after workers were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos dust.
My concern arises from the fact Made-in-China trains have been used for the Downtown Line (DTL) and maybe other lines.
Let’s look at the events leading to the first-phase launch of the DTL:
- 2008 : A total of 73 trainsets consisting of 3 cars each were purchased at a cost of approximately S$570.7 million in a public tender.
- Nov. 2012 : The new trains from China made for the Downtown Line (DTL) were unveiled.
- Mar. 2013 : quote, “During the assembly phase, LTA sent engineers to China to supervise the work, thus ensuring strict safety standards were met.”
- Dec. 22, 2013 : The first stage of DTL opened in Dec last year, linking 6 stations from Bugis to Chinatown.
Let’s say we allow (not unreasonably) 3 months’ time for shipment, delivery, installation and test-running of the trains before launch date (4 above). It can be deduced that the DTL trains would have been built by Sept. 2013. This is 3 months BEFORE the ABC report of Nov. 2013 and 6 months BEFORE the New Zealand Herald report of 28 Mar. 2014, of the presence of asbestos in their Made-in-China trains.
Hence, LTA engineers were supervising assembly of the trains BEFORE news of the asbestos issue; so how could they possibly be aware of the issue at the time, especially since supervision was mainly concerned with safety FEATURES? We can see this safety focus from LTA’s assurance in Mar. 2013, in which they talked ONLY about safety FEATURES, e.g., quote,
“If a train was to stop in a tunnel as a result of a power-loss – the battery life will provide support to the emergency lighting and ventilation while the evacuation take place.”
They didn’t even mention about the asbestos issue (which came to light only after their assurance).
Moreover, we don’t feel assured by LTA’s other (implied) assurance, that, quote,
“the trains were assembled in China, but the components come from 8 different countries, including China (which manufactured the car body), Sweden, UK, France, Spain, the Czech Republic and Germany.”
The reason is, as reported in Australia and NZ, the toxic (noise suppression) asbestos is in the car body – presumably not in the other components.
Now that LTA is aware of the asbestos issue in Made-in-China trains in the Australia and the NZ systems, can LTA be as cocksure about the safety of Singapore’s Made-in-China trains – even though they may be from another maker in China? Asbestos is a terrible scourge, as Australia’s experience has shown.
We need 100% assurance, LTA.
Edward