MRT network goes 9 months without delay exceeding 30 minutes, longest streak since 2011
The reliability figures exclude the Thomson-East Coast Line, which is still undergoing construction, extension and system integration works, says the Land Transport Authority.
SINGAPORE: The MRT network, excluding the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), saw no delays exceeding 30 minutes in July, according to the monthly rail reliability report published by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday (Aug 14).
July marked the ninth consecutive month without such a delay, the longest period since LTA began tracking the statistic in 2011.
LTA publishes its reliability figures using a 12-month moving average of mean kilometres between failures (MKBF), a metric that measures the average distance a train travels before encountering a delay of more than five minutes.
July also saw the overall MRT network's MKBF rise to 2,370,000 train-km, up from a revised 2,360,000 train-km in June, representing the fourth consecutive month that the network's MKBF exceeded 2 million train-km.
“Our high MKBF levels over the last four months reflect the sustained effort and dedication of our transport workers and rail operators to uplift reliability and improve their response to faults and incidents,” said LTA.
The figures also reflect the impact of the recommendations made by the Rail Reliability Taskforce in February 2026, which operators SMRT and SBS Transit are now working closely with the LTA to implement, the agency said.
All five mature MRT lines either improved or maintained their MKBF figures in July from a month ago.
The MKBF for the Circle Line (CCL) improved to 2,450,000 train-km from 2,400,000 train-km in June, while the North East Line's (NEL) MKBF edged up to 4,470,000 train-km from 4,460,000 train-km.
There were no MKBF changes for the North-South Line (NSL), East-West Line (EWL), and Downtown Line (DTL) in July, with their figures remaining at 1,650,000 train-km, 2,020,000 train-km, and 4,200,000 train-km, respectively.
JUNE FIGURES REVISED
LTA also revised its provisional June reliability figures to account for a delay on the NSL on Jun 11, which was found to have exceeded 5 minutes following the conclusion of investigations.
"The NSL MKBF for June 2026 has therefore been updated to 1.65 million train-km. The overall MRT network MKBF for Jun 2026 has also been updated to 2.36 million train-km," said LTA.
"As stated within the report, reported figures are subject to adjustment pending ongoing incident investigations."
TEL's MKBF, though not included in the overall MKBF, rose to 373,000 train-km from 355,000 train-km last month.
The MKBF of Singapore's newest MRT line is not included in the overall MRT network's MKBF because 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," said LTA.
TRAIN SERVICE DELIVERY AND PUNCTUALITY
LTA 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.
Train service delivery of the MRT network was 99.71 per cent in July, slightly below the 99.82 per cent recorded in June.
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, the MRT network saw lower train punctuality in July at 99.29 per cent compared with 99.32 per cent in June.
The CCL, which was completed last month after more than 30 years in the making, saw punctuality increase to 98.59 per cent from June's 98.21 per cent.