The Land Transport Authority (LTA) made an announcement yesterday (Dec 15) revealing that they found structural cracks at the “crosshead” structures supporting the Sengkang-Punggol LRT train line during a “regular inspection”. The LTA covered up the seriousness of the cracks and refused to disclose further details.
However, the government was quick to play down the possibilities of a railway track collapse, claiming the structural cracks is “safe” and that they will need 2 years to repair the structures:
“While cracks were found on the crossheads during regular inspections, these were assessed to not be of any safety risk to commuters and did not compromise the load-bearing capacity of the crossheads. Rectification of the cracks will be carried out as a precautionary measure and these works will be completed by 2020.”
There is no explanation how the cracks were formed, but it is likely due to overpopulation on the trains causing overloaded stress on the beam structure.
In the same announcement yesterday, LTA also told Singapore commuters to expect more train delays island-wide in the next two months, Jan and Feb 2018. The delays will affect both train duopoly companies, SMRT and SBS Transit.
In the northeastern region, only one platform at Sengkang-Punggol LRT railway will be functional from 5.30am to 7am for six Sundays between Jan 1 and Feb 11. LTA said that SBS Transit will increase the train frequency on the single platform to cope with increase in passenger load.
Over int the north-western region, the Bukit Panjang LRT will see a new power supply next year 2018 in order to handle the increased passenger load.
Singapore’s population is currently 5.61 million, and the country’s train infrastructures have buckled due to the stress. The dictator Prime Minister however set a 6.9 million population target by 2030, to keep his ruling party in power from the continual source of new citizens’ votes.