In the article “TRAINS ON THE
NORTH-SOUTH AND EAST-WEST LINES SAFE FOR SERVICE”, the Land Transport Authority
(2016) wrote that the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL) trains, that have
been in the media spotlight, are safe for service.
According to the Land Transport
Authority (LTA), testing is conducted on all new trains, including the Kawasaki
Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang (KHI-CSR) trains in question, before they are
put into service. For these trains, immediate action was taken to prevent
issues with battery housing as well as cracks of the draughtscreen from
resurfacing during train operation.
Hairline cracks were discovered on
the car-body bolster of the train during inspection. These were confirmed by
LTA to not affect operational safety. Nevertheless, all the affected trains
were gradually being sent back for modification.
To ensure that there are
sufficient trains for commuters, only one train was sent back at a time due to “time
consuming and labour-intensive” rectification works. These replacements can be
completed as early as 2019 as more trains will be sent back concurrently
starting next year.
LTA stated that they would perform
stringent checks regularly to ensure operational safety of all trains.
TRAINS ON THE NORTH-SOUTH AND
EAST-WEST LINES SAFE FOR SERVICE (2016, July 6). In LTA news page. Retrieved
from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=0f8b1220-0289-4bef-99c9b2455f17a66c#_ftn1
Thesis:
In my opinion, I feel that this
article was written to ensure that safety was never compromised even though
hairline cracks were found on the bolster of the trains.
This includes the fact that the
issue was handled in an organized and systematic way by the respective parties
which proves their competency.
To me, I feel that what is
important is how they react to the situation when an issue arise, and how the
problems were approached effectively so as to prevent future similar
happenings.
According to the straits times, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan
has addressed the issue that these trains could withstand stress of more than
three times the operational experience, without reducing the safety margin. This
meant that commuters should feel at ease that stress tests are conducted to
ensure that are no defects.
It is also known that the issue
with battery housing occurred only during testing phase; hence proving that
testing was effecting in finding any defects before using it.
Many
would feel that (KHI-CSR) should be replaced so as to prevent future reoccurrence.
In reference to Channel News Asia, I feel that they handled the issue
systematically and professionally by taking ownership of the issue voluntarily;
prolonging the warranty of the bolsters and car bodies after replacing them.
This culture of taking responsibility should be commended on.
In
addition, it is stated that tenders were called based on excellence and price valuation.
However, I feel that there should be a limit as to how many defects were found
during testing. If a certain number of defects were found, the respective
companies should be given another chance to rectify the issue and ensure that
it will not occur again. Should it happen again, the company should be barred
from contesting for subsequent tenders for a given period.
The
point of this is to learn from this incident is that, taking responsibility of
the problem should be encouraged, followed by solutions to prevent similar
happenings and follow ups to be made.
Cracks on MRT trains: Khaw addresses key issues raised (2016, Aug
17). In Straits
times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/cracks-on-mrt-trains-khaw-addresses-key-issues-raised
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