MRT reliability hits record high in August

SINGAPORE: The reliability of the MRT network, excluding the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), reached a new record in August, according to the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) monthly report published on Friday (Sep 11).In August, the MRT network's mean kilometres between failures (MKBF) rose to 2.88 million train-km, up from 2.37 million train-km the preceding month. LTA publishes its reliability figures using a 12-month moving average of MKBF - a metric that measures train reliability and tracks the average distance that a train travels before it encounters a delay of more than five minutes. "This is the highest MKBF our MRT network has ever achieved," said the authority. According to LTA data, the previous high of 2,627,000 train-km was achieved in June 2024.August was also the fifth consecutive month that the MRT network's MKBF has exceeded 2 million train-km. The MRT network, excluding the TEL, also had no delays exceeding 30 minutes in August. This marked the tenth consecutive month without such a delay, the longest period since LTA began tracking the statistic in 2011.On the MRT network's reliability, LTA said: "This was only possible because of our transport workers and rail operators."Our high MKBF levels over the last five months reflect their sustained effort and dedication to uplift reliability and improve their response to faults and incidents."It also reflects the impact of the recommendations made by the Rail Reliability Taskforce in Feb 2026, which LTA, SMRT and SBST have been following up on."All five mature MRT lines either improved or maintained their MKBF figures in August from a month ago.The Downtown Line almost doubled its MKBF, going from 4,200,000 train-km to 8,370,000 train-km.The MKBF for the Circle Line improved from 2,450,000 train-km to 2,510,000 train-km, while the North East Line's MKBF edged up to 4,480,000 train-km from 4,470,000 train-km.At 1,650,000 train-km, the North-South Line saw no MKBF change, while the East-West Line improved from 2,020,000 train-km in July to 2,520,000 train-km in August."The Downtown and North East Lines also continued to perform strongly, recording their highest theoretically possible MKBF of over 8 million and 4 million train-km respectively in the past 12 months," said LTA.TRAIN SERVICE DELIVERY AND PUNCTUALITYLTA also uses other metrics to measure rail reliability, including train service delivery, which measures whether trains operated according to schedule.It is calculated by measuring the actual distance travelled by trains compared to the scheduled distance, and expressed as a percentage.In August, the tain service delivery for the overall MRT network was at 99.62 per cent compared with 99.71 per cent in July.Another metric used to measure rail reliability is train punctuality, which calculates the percentage of train trips that are completed on time at the end of each line within two minutes of schedule.Train punctuality is affected by service disruption and other operational issues that do not result in a full stoppage of services.Lower punctuality reflects less regular train frequencies, which can cause longer wait times and more crowding.Overall, train punctuality dipped slightly, from 99.29 per cent in July to 99.03 per cent in August.THOMSON-EAST COAST LINEThe MKBF of Singapore's newest MRT line rose to 415,000 train-km in August, up from 373,000 train-km the month before.The reliability figures exclude the TEL as it is still undergoing construction, extension and system integration works while in regular operation."Such teething issues that arise during initial operations and as a result of system updates can result in delays, even though the nature of such delays are different from those encountered during the operation of mature lines," LTA said last month.Newer lines tend to operate significantly lower mileage since ridership is relatively low and trains are not run at more typical frequencies when compared with more mature lines.The authority said last year that it expects the performance of the TEL to improve after it fully opens in 2026 and operations have stabilised.