Foreign experts to assess MRT, suggest tweaks

A team of Swedish and Japanese experts have been appointed to conduct an independent assessment of the North-South and East-West lines' power supply and trackside infrastructure, following the massive July 7 train disruption.

The team consists of four experts from Sweden's Parsons Brinkerhoff and a traction power expert from Meidensha Corporation, a Tokyo-based company with extensive experience in power supply.

They will be led by Mats Onner from Parsons, and Hiroto Ikeda from Meidensha, and will be given "full access to the infrastructure and installations along the North-South-East-West Line during non-service hours", said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a statement yesterday.

"The team of experts, closely assisted by engineers from LTA and (rail operator) SMRT, will also be analysing the data collated by LTA and SMRT engineers since the incident," the statement added.

Their assessment will focus on identifying the root cause of the power trip that caused the disruption, which saw the system shut down for more than two hours and left more than 250,000 commuters stranded.

The assessment will also propose areas for improvement to prevent a recurrence.

"They will also review the current condition of the power supply and trackside installations, as well as provide recommendations to enhance the overall system and its maintenance," said LTA, adding that this assessment is expected to be completed next month. The experts were selected for their experience in railway engineering, said LTA.

It added that Parsons was the consultant for mechanical services on both lines, while Meidensha had designed and installed the power supply systems on them.

dansonc@sph.com.sg

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