SMRT, SBS Transit whipped with $1.11m fine for five rail incidents

Penalty fees to be donated.

According to a release, the Land Transport Authority intends to impose financial penalties of $860,000 on SMRT for four separate incidents on the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL), the Circle Line (CCL) and the Bukit Panjang LRT (BPLRT). Separately, LTA intends to impose a financial penalty of $250,000 on SBS Transit (SBST) for a service disruption on the North East Line (NEL).

Newton Station Trackside Fire

On 13 February 2013, SMRT detected a fire on the Direct Current (DC) cables about 5 metres from the headwall of Newton station. Northbound train service (towards Woodlands) between Marina Bay and Toa Payoh stations was disrupted for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

About 17,700 passengers were affected. The fire was subsequently put out by Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers, after which normal train service resumed.

Forensic laboratory tests indicated that the cable fire could have started from arcing1 between exposed conductor wires and the wet conditions in the cable trough.

The findings also indicated that this was a localised incident, as no further abnormalities were detected after the inspection of all the DC cables in the tunnels of the NSEWL. Cable samples from Orchard station that were sent for laboratory tests were also found to be in good condition.

In managing the incident, SMRT had committed several lapses. These include detraining passengers at Newton station rather than at an earlier station further away from the fire, delaying the switching off of traction power to the cables, and ineffective deployment of the tunnel and station ventilation systems which resulted in smoke entering the platform and concourse areas.

SMRT has since updated its operating procedures for managing trackside fires, as well as its training for staff to handle fire incidents, to incorporate the lessons learnt from this incident. LTA and SCDF will also conduct more joint exercises with public transport operators to ensure that frontline staff are better prepared for such instances.

The total intended penalties of $1.11 million will be donated to the Public Transport Fund to help needy families with transport fares.