In
the article, “Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail
system.”, Lee (2015) states that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan thinks highly
of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and suggested that local transportation
sectors should use MTRC as a guideline for its “reliability standards”.
According to MTRC and SMRT’s annual reports, as compared to Singapore, New York
and London, Hong Kong’s subway system yields the highest “system’s farebox
recover ratio”. The length of MTR’s railway surpasses SMRT’s by 59km and even
though both faces the same amount of significant hold ups, the punctuality of
SMRT trains is 3.9% lesser than MTR. MTRC invested a larger amount of their
earnings on enhancing train systems and ensures that commuters enjoy a smooth
ride by having a much higher inspection frequency than SMRT while being
meticulous in examining the railway lines. MTRC aims to rectify any issues or
faults that arises under two minutes with the introduction of the “Super
Operations Control Centre” which oversees the entire railway system, resolving
emergencies with their fast reaction.
Looking at
the comparisons between Hong Kong’s MTRC and Singapore’s SMRT, there are many
aspects which SMRT can learn from MTR and improve on. In particularly, SMRT should
form a rapid response team, implement crowd control plans and training to
improve efficiency during breakdowns.
In order for
SMRT to swiftly solve breakdown faults and redirect commuters to travelling
alternatives, staff need to be deployed as soon as possible to affected areas
and carry out their assigned duties promptly. Although SMRT
makes use of various real time monitoring systems, they have to recall staff
from various departments and other stations to provide support at the affect
stations through the command centre (Lee, 2017; see also SMRT, 2015). This
takes time for their staff to assemble and relay instructions, hence delaying
service recovery. According to the MTR
Sustainability Report 2016, MTR formed multiple rapid response units with
different specialisations such as the Infrastructure Maintenance Rapid Response
Unit, Rolling Stock Rapid Response Unit and the Customer Service Support Team
(CSST). Teams are deployed immediately when there are issues and perform their
duties simultaneously so that train services can be resumed (MTR, 2016).
Training and forming specialized teams will help
prepare for future problems, respond faster to break downs and also build up an
extensive chain of command to improve communication and efficiency.
Secondly,
being able to redirect commuters to the shuttle bus services in an orderly
manner to avoid confusion is also crucial in handling train disruptions so that
commuters can continue on their journey and allow technical staff to conduct
the necessary checks. Lee (2015) noted that MTR provides shuttle bus for
commuters when needed. According to MTRC (n.d.), MTR has various crowd control
measures which they execute correspondingly to the situation. They also make
use of queue barriers and staff carrying sign boards to indicate shuttle bus
queue lines so that commuters know where to queue for buses. In a recent news article,
Ong (2017) stated that during the train delay, the SMRT shuttle bus services
were lacking signage which caused confusion when queuing. From this, it is
clear that SMRT needs to improve further on crowd controlling.
I
believe that forming specialized teams will help SMRT prepare for future
problems, respond faster to breakdowns and also build up an extensive chain of
command to improve communication and efficiency, improving customer
satisfaction.
Reference
Lee, Min Kok (2015, October 29). Dubbed 'the Best
in Class': 6 Things about Hong Kong's MTR Rail System. Retrieved from
Mass Transit Railway (2016). Sustainability Report 2016.
Retrieved from
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (2015, November 12). SMRT
Maintenance Operation Centre Improving Rail Reliability. Retrieved from
Lee, Ling Wee (2017, April 7). All-of-SMRT Approach to keeping MRT Train Services Moving. Retrieved from
Mass Transit Railway (n.d.). Understanding Our Crowd Management Measures. Retrieved from
Ong, Justin (2017, August 19). 'Can't you use GPS?': A train delay, a bus ride gone south and a day to remember, retrieved from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/can-t-you-use-gps-a-train-delay-a-bus-ride-gone-south-and-a-day-9134672
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