Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

[The full article was published in The Straits Times on 19 June 2023.]

In a wide-ranging interview with The Straits Times, SMRT Corporation Chairman Mr Seah Moon Ming shared that the company is close to finding the right balance between rail reliability and the cost of maintaining service levels. s He added that SMRT strives for “high performance, but at the same time, we must also look at the costs.”

While acknowledging that SMRT can always do better, Mr Seah also cautioned against doing too much in the pursuit of ever-higher reliability scores, citing the risk of overspending public funds that the company receives in the form of Government grants.

He said: “We never want to undermaintain because in the past, it was an issue. But neither do we want to do over maintenance.”