SMRT, LTA in discussions to overhaul rail system | TODAYonline

SMRT, LTA in discussions to overhaul rail system | TODAYonline:

SINGAPORE — The rail crack incident on Thursday — which was followed by another late last night, the fourth incident in the last two months — was “symptomatic” of an ageing rail infrastructure, the SMRT said yesterday, as it revealed that it is in discussions with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to “overhaul” the entire rail system.

In a statement, in which the operator also explained the cause of Thursday’s incident, SMRT Vice-President for Corporate Marketing and Communications Kalai Natarajan said the overhaul is “absolutely necessary for system safety and reliability moving forward”.

The SMRT is already working with the LTA on an overhaul of the third rail system and a sleeper replacement programme along the North-South and East-West lines, following two major train service breakdowns in December 2011.

The proposed system overhaul comes on top of these efforts.

Noting that the rail infrastructure is “experiencing the effects of wear and tear”, Ms Kalai said: “It is critical to look into a change out of portions of the running rail that are reaching 30 years in age.”

When contacted, the LTA confirmed that the discussions were taking place.

In their preliminary investigations into Thursday’s incident, SMRT engineers found that a strip of metal in contact with the rail had corroded, causing the underside of the rail to weaken and crack.

Routine ultrasonic as well as multi-functional vehicle tests were unable to detect the cracked rail as it had occurred on its underside, Ms Kalai said.

The incident caused train service delays on the North-South Line on Thursday morning.

Ms Kalai said engineers “do not preclude similar incidents from happening in future”, adding that the latest rail crack is “markedly different in nature from the previous two, as this occurred on a non-welded portion of the rail”.

Another rail crack was found on the East-West Line at Tiong Bahru Station at around 11pm last night, causing travel delays. The incident was resolved an hour later.

Last week, the transport operator had declared that it would “leave no stone unturned” and was conducting a thorough investigation of all suspected rail joints in its network and taking remedial action, following the first two rail crack incidents.

As a result, 81 rail joints on the North-South and East-West lines were identified as possibly “susceptible” to cracks

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