LTA brings in Swedish, Japanese experts to investigate unprecedented MRT breakdown

The assessment will be completed in August.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has turned to Swedish and Japanese experts after local engineers failed to discover the root cause of the massive MRT breakdown that occurred on July 7.

LTA will bring in a team of five experts from Sweden’s Parsons Brinkerhoff and Japan’s Meidensha Corporation to independently assess the overall condition of the power supply infrastructure and other railway trackside installations along the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL).

The team of experts will be led by Mats Onner from Parsons and Hiroto Ikeda from Meidensha. They will focus on identifying the root cause of the power trip and proposing areas for improvement to prevent recurrence.

They will also review the current condition of the power supply and trackside installations, as well as provide recommendations to enhance the overall system and its maintenance.

After a briefing by the LTA, the team will be given full access to the infrastructure and installations along the NSEWL during non-service hours.

They will be closely assisted by engineers from LTA and SMRT and will also be analysing the data collated by LTA and SMRT engineers since the incident.

Parsons is an established design and engineering company which was a consultant for mechanical services on the NSEWL, as well as the electrical and mechanical services on the North East Line, Circle Line and Downtown Line.

Meidensha is a Tokyo-based company with extensive experience in power supply that designed and installed the power supply system on the NSEWL. The company is also the contractor providing the power supply system for the northern stretch of the Thomson-East Coast Line.