Let's talk about Circle Line. Circle line has been having many problems since the opening of the rest of the circle line stations in Oct 2011. If you past by the Bishan Circle Line, you will know why. The train arrival indicators never seemed to work after the opening in Oct 2011. I originally thought it was on purpose as the waiting time always seem to be 6 mins or more but judging from the recent network communications fault that they like to use, it seems to me that the Circle Line has been commissioned before thorough testing has been done. Don't forget the power fault that happened just days before the opening. Power fault... Sounds familiar?
Last night's power fault is really the icing on the cake. There are several problems in the way SMRT managed the situation but 3 important ones come into mind:
- A 40metre stretch of power rail was damaged. Personally, I believe its more like wear and tear which brings up the question of whether preventive maintenance is done on a regular frequency. If it is done properly, the wear and tear would have been detected and replaced before this happened.
- It is very well known that SMRT trains can be very stuffy, even with the air-conditioning on. Once the air-conditioning is off, do you think that it will not be stuffy? What's the use of ventilation when the train is stuffy even with the air-conditioning on (or is it on in the first place)? Again, where's the preventive maintenance for the trains?
- Last but not least, related to point 2 above, the train driver in question seems to be oblivious to the comfort of the passengers. How else can you explain "trapping" the passengers in the train for one whole hour after the train lost power, knowing that there is no air-conditioning in a non-moving train? Ventilation is of no use if there is no movement within the tunnel, and don't tell me the train driver doesn't know that the train is packed?
Singaporeans are by and large quite well-behaved and disciplined, especially in public. For someone to use the extinguisher to break the windows of the train shows how bad the situation was within the train.
Now all of us are curious on what kind of penalties will be slapped on SMRT. $700? $200? They should hit them where it hurts.
5 comments:
Perhaps it is time for some heads to be chopped off.
I drive those MRT trains. My line is the East West line. I empathise with those hapless pax caught inside the stalled train in the dark tunnel. I agree that the thoughtful pax broke the glass for fresh air. You seem to pinpoint the blame solely on the Train Officer(Driver) which I feel is not fair. He needs to get authorisation from Ops Command Centre. He cant simply make any decision due to safety and procedures. Eg the traction current must be off before pax can go down to track. My point of view. Thks for your understanding.
Hi Gintai,
The very fact that the driver has to get authorisation is the problem. What if the train is on fire? Need to get authorisation too? If authorisation is not given on time or even rejected, then what? Passengers are supposed to resign to a fate of roasted to a crisp?
The point is that it is an emergency and independent thinking and action should be allowed. However, the action chosen is to follow the rules by the book, which could have become a serious life endangerment issue due to the lack of ventilation in a stuffy and ENCLOSED area.
And what is the safety issue really? That the air in the tunnel is toxic? Or something will jump out like it does in American horror movies?
Jezabella, I think gintai has a point there.
Not toxic fumes, but live currents. Put that together with mass hysteria, and you have a lot of fried citizens.
All in all, everyone directly in the situation did what they could in the circumstances handed to them. Its the higher ups we need to scrutinize, not the little man ad the end of the food chain.
TL;DR, if you're going down the sacrificial lamb route, you'll never fix the root of the issue.
Hi Gintai,
Thank you for your comments and shedding light on what might have happened. I understand that there are procedures to follow but there should be emergency procedures that does not require the train driver to wait 1 hour before leading the passengers to safety. Furthermore, I always thought that there are walkways at both sides of the tunnels for such emergencies(might be wrong).
Just imagine. You are in a train
(1) with no lights (according to eye witness. Not sure where is emergency light that was being mentioned
(2) with no aircon (like I said in the post, the train is stuffy even with aircon on)
(3) with no updates (from the reports, the same message was played over and over again that did not provide new information)
And to top it all off, you're there for an hour. Gintai, maybe you can provide feedback to your management. How would they feel if they are in the train at that point in time?
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