After being slammed by States Times Review for not having a deadline in the signal tests resulting in weekly train breakdowns, SMRT Trains CEO Lee Ling Wee yesterday (July 14) said that the test will continue until May 2018 at least:
“Testing of the new train signalling system on the North-South Line (NSL), which has been behind many of the delays commuters have had to put up with in recent weeks, could go on until next May.”
The ex-military brigadier general SMRT CEO then told a lie to alleviate the frustration of hearing the news, saying that “things would wrap up earlier”:
“However, the testing could wrap up even earlier, if all goes well, with the signalling system expected to take between four and six months to stabilise.”
The new Land Transport Authority CEO is also a crony army general from the SAF. LTA’s spokesperson, deputy chief executive Chua Chong Kheng made the joint statement with SMRT CEO yesterday, and both blame the contractor, French conglomerate Thales, for software glitches.
“A new software update will be installed on the NSL after passenger service hours on Friday (July 14). However, possible initial faults during the software update cannot be ruled out, and we hope to get commuters’ understanding. I think this period of seven weeks, we have encountered some teething issues. This software upgrade is meant to address all the technical issues that we have faced with so far during the testing.”
The SMRT CEO also highlighted that there are other persistent train faults happening that are not attributed to the new signalling system:
“Not every incident and delay on North-South and East-West Lines over the past few weeks was caused by the new signalling system… From time to time, we still encounter signalling faults due to the ageing legacy system.”