Dear TRS,
My name is Dayan and I am the developer of FAILRAIL.sg. I wanted to share with you and your readers some of the inconsistencies with LTA fines.
There was a LTA announcement on fines for train service disruptions in July, so I updated my Fines page: http://failrailsg.appspot.com/fines.html
However there is some inconsistency in which LTA chose to fine some service disruptions, but not others.
This is a list of service disruptions between Jul 2013 and Jun 2014. These were NOT fined but was serious enough for bus bridging to be activated, or had additional trains deployed to cope with the crowd build-up.
Train fault disrupted NEL service towards Harbourfront on 29 Mar 2014 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0dFf0ojY-LPVFVINktuWEFoTW8/edit?usp=sh...)
Power fault disrupted Downtown Line service on 7 Mar 2014 (http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/press/2014-03-07-02.aspx)
Signalling fault disrupted service between Paya Lebar and Dhoby Ghaut during rush-hour commute on 27 Feb 2014 (https://sg.news.yahoo.com/second-track-fault-in-two-days-strikes-north-s...)
Track fault disrupted service between Jurong East and Ang Mo Kio during rush-hour commute on 24 Feb 2014 (https://sg.news.yahoo.com/second-track-fault-in-two-days-strikes-north-s...)
Loss of traction power disrupted service between Kranji and Yew Tee on 11 Jan 2014 (https://sg.news.yahoo.com/second-track-fault-in-two-days-strikes-north-s...)
Power fault disrupted service between Bugis and Chinatown on 27 Dec 2013 (https://sg.news.yahoo.com/new-downtown-line-mrt-service-hit-by-second-br...)
Power trip disrupted service between Stadium and HarbourFront on 18 Dec 2013. Passengers had to detrain on emergency walkways at Caldecott and Tai Seng stations near midnight. (http://www.mynewsdesk.com/sg/smrt/pressreleases/update-on-18-december-20...)
Defective third rail disrupted service between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris on 11 Oct 2013 (https://www.facebook.com/SMRTCorpSG/posts/646483455372887)
Train fault disrupted service between Tampines and Pasir Ris during rush-hour commute on 24 Aug 2013 (https://www.facebook.com/SMRTCorpSG/posts/624618960892670)
Notably, there was a major train breakdown on the North-East Line on 17 August 2012. Almost 2 years later (as of July 2014), LTA still has not announced its final investigation results, or whether SBS Transit would be penalised for this incident: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/sbs-transit-to-face--400-000-fine-for-nel-disr...
Last update from LTA on this incident was in Feb 2013, pointing to stress corrosion cracking as being the probable cause of the Aug 2012 incident. After that, nothing heard out.
http://app.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=6fff5f76-881b-4cc0-9629...
Why the inconsistency in which LTA chooses to fine some incidents but not others?
The point we want to make is not to ask for more fines to be slapped on the service operators. But rather, are the fines an effective deterrence? Did the fines actually improve train service reliability? I talked about this in a previous article published on TOC:
http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/06/a-plea-to-sbs-transit-and-lta/
From Gerald Giam's speech in Parliament on 17 Feb 2014, the fines eventually return to the service operators anyway.
"Next, penalties imposed by LTA for service disruptions are donated to the Public Transport Fund, which is used to buy transport vouchers for needy commuters. This means that the fines paid are eventually returned to the operators in the form of fare revenue."
http://wp.sg/2014/02/rapid-transit-systems-amendment-bill-ncmp-gerald-giam/
I think it's time we ask whether or not these fines are even effective and if not, what else the government should be doing to ensure that Public Transport Operators actually improve their services.
Dayan
TRS Contributor