SBS Transit faces tough challenges in Singapore - Rapid Transit: World Class Metros

International Railway Journal, June, 2002 by David Briginshaw

SBS Transit, a newcomer to rail, faces some tough challenges when it opens the North East Line and its associated peoplemover before the end of this year. The North East Line is Singapore's first fully-automated driverless metro and includes some innovative technology and systems. Nevertheless, SBS Transit aims to operate a highly-reliable, customer-friendly service.

THE 20km North East Line (NEL) and the 21km two-line peoplemover were designed and built by Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA). SBS Transit was awarded a 30-year franchise by LTA in May 1999 to operate and maintain the two systems. SBS Transit is a subsidiary of DelGro Corporation which hitherto has concentrated on road passenger transport--buses, taxis and car hire--in Singapore, as well as in China, Malaysia, and Britain.

Singapore's existing two-line metro and peoplemover is operated by Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT). Speaking at the Asia Pacific Rail * conference in Hong Kong earlier this year, Mr Simon Lane, chief operating officer, rail business, with SBS Transit, recognised that SMRT is already regarded as a world class railway operator. "We want to be at least as effective as SMRT," Lane said. "In Singapore, the tolerance for poor performance is very low. We will be expected to run 98% of trains within two minutes of right time.

However, SBS Transit wants to go beyond this, as Lane explained. "We will endeavour to differentiate the way we relate to passengers, staff and the community. Automation enables us to deploy staff so that they can add value to customers. Our primary objective is to help, to take the initiative, and be very pro-active. The fact that trains will be under automatic control means that it is even more important that the transit system presents a human face to the travelling public. We will be driverless but not unmanned."

Station staff will be responsible for the safe and effective management of stations. There will also be a small team of mobile customer service staff. They will be trained to serve passengers pro-actively, and to provide the first line response in case of problems or emergencies.

To improve safety, CCTV will be provided both at stations and on trains. There will also be public address and visual passenger information systems on board, plus a two-way intercom radio link to the operations control centre.

SBS Transit has had to set up a completely new team of people to run the rail operation. As Lane pointed out, 80 out of the 630 staff have prior rail experience. "We are a new operator, but with some very experienced managers," Lane observed. For example, Lane was chief executive of the State Rail Authority of New South Wales before joining SBS Transit. The chief signalling engineer has come from Alstom, which has supplied the signalling and train control system.

NEL is pioneering a lot of new technology. For example, the signalling system will employ state-of-the-art transmission-based moving block technology. There will not be any lineside signals, only markers. The fleet of 25 six-car trains, also supplied by Alstom, will be able to operate at minimum headways of 90 seconds. NEL is also designed for bi-directional operation. There will also be a very sophisticated maintenance management system with automatic selection of parts. The track will have a new type of fastening.

The operations control centre will monitor and regulate train operations, power supply, and environmental systems, coordinate maintenance, and disseminate information. Each station will also have a workstation from where limited local control will be possible in the event of a failure or emergency.

However, as Lane pointed out: "Very high levels of redundancy are built into the systems, so we do not expect to intervene manually very often." There will also be a separate depot control centre to monitor and control train movements within the depot, and to dispatch and accept trains to and from the main line.

SBS Transit has had a team in place since September 1999, and has been actively participating in the design of NEL and the peoplemover. SBS Transit has seconded a team to LTA from the operation and maintenance departments to support equipment installation. SBS Transit staff are also participating in equipment testing and commissioning.

Lane identified three phases in the preparation for opening the new metro and peoplemover. The design of the organisation was substantially completed in December 2000 including the operation and maintenance philosophy.

Lane explained the maintenance philosophy that SBS Transit has adopted. "We decided to maintain those systems that have a high impact on railway operation our. selves. We intend to outsource non-core railway systems where organisations are able to do the work more efficiently and reliably at lower cost, or where equipment repair requires sophisticated tools and highly qualified personnel that would demand uneconomic levels of investment if done in-house. All contractors will wear an SBS Transit uniform when working on site to clearly identify them with us."