Punctuality, passenger impact among LTA’s new reliability indicators; 99% of trains on time in Sept
[SINGAPORE] The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has released data on three new rail reliability indicators, with one of them showing that more than 99 per cent of trains ran on time in September.
Published in the latest rail reliability report on Nov 14, the new indicators are the punctuality of trains, the impact of train disruptions on passengers, and the proportion of train services that operate according to schedule.
These metrics are being tracked as part of internal regulatory standards that the authority uses to monitor the performance of rail operators.
Rail reliability is mainly evaluated based on mean kilometres between failure (MKBF), which captures the distance a train travels before encountering a delay of more than five minutes. It, however, does not reflect the actual impact on commuters.
The first new indicator, which evaluates the punctuality of trains, complements MKBF by tracking the consistency of rail operations, as well as the predictability of journeys and wait times, said LTA.
It measures the percentage of trips completed within two minutes of the scheduled time. This means that it will capture the effects of operational irregularities, such as a wheelchair getting stuck between train doors.
LTA’s latest figures show that 99.16 per cent of trains completed their scheduled trips within two minutes of their scheduled times in September, up from 98.91 per cent in August.
The authority noted that this figure is comparable to those of major metros overseas, such as the Taipei Metro, which registered 99.41 per cent in train punctuality in 2023.
Fewer trains on the East-West Line (EWL) and Circle Line (CCL) were punctual in September, compared with August. On the EWL, the longest MRT line here, 99.2 per cent of trains arrived on time in September, down from 99.24 per cent in August. The CCL recorded a punctuality rate of 99.38 per cent in September, down from 99.71 per cent in August.
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Public transport operator SMRT runs both lines.
LTA said it is more challenging to maintain the punctuality of trains on shorter lines, as operators have less time to adjust travel speeds or catch up with scheduled arrival times after delays.
Therefore, train punctuality figures for the SBS Transit-run North East Line (NEL) – the shortest in the MRT network – were the lowest, at 97.81 per cent in September and 96.98 per cent in August.
Another new indicator tracks the proportion of the scheduled distance that a train actually travelled. A higher value reflects greater rail reliability, as it means more trains operated according to schedule.
This indicator captures the extent of service disruptions, since longer disruptions reduce the total distance travelled, said LTA.
But it noted that disruptions usually affect only part of a line for certain hours, with normal operations continuing elsewhere. For well-run metro systems, this indicator is likely to be high.
In September, trains across all five lines ran 99.83 per cent of their scheduled mileage, up from 99.65 per cent in August.
LTA said this is comparable to global metros, such as the Hong Kong MTR, which registered a score of 99.9 per cent from July to September 2025.
Trains on the North-South Line (NSL) and CCL saw a slight dip in the proportion of scheduled mileage travelled. Trains on the NSL clocked 99.88 per cent in September, down from 99.9 per cent in August, and those on the CCL logged 99.6 per cent, down from 99.72 per cent.
Data for the Thomson-East Coast Line is excluded from these two measurements, as the line is still undergoing construction and will take time to stabilise, said LTA.
On why both indicators remained above 99 per cent despite a series of disruptions, LTA said isolated incidents typically have a relatively small impact on punctuality and the proportion of the scheduled distance that trains actually travelled.
This is because the majority of train journeys remain unaffected, when set against the extensive MRT network where trains run 18 to 19 hours each day.
The authority added that both scores reflect the system’s overall strong performance, despite occasional train faults and service delays.
The third new indicator estimates the number and proportion of passengers affected by delays that exceed 30 minutes, based on the historical average ridership for the affected section.
LTA noted that ridership data during an actual train disruption may not fully reflect the impact, as some passengers may have used a different route to avoid the incident.
From October 2024 to September 2025, there were seven train disruptions that led to service delays longer than 30 minutes.
The most significant one occurred on the NEL on Aug 12, when a major power fault affected services between Farrer Park and Punggol Coast stations for three hours, affecting more than 50,000 passengers, or 9.7 per cent of the line’s daily ridership, LTA’s data showed.
The second-largest train fault was on the CCL, with disrupted services between Promenade and Serangoon stations on March 5, delaying the journeys of 5,000 to 50,000 passengers, or 1.4 per cent of the line’s daily ridership, said LTA.
Next was an incident involving a stalled train at Tai Seng station that halted services in both directions between Serangoon and Promenade stations on the CCL on Dec 14, 2024. It affected fewer than 5,000 passengers, or 1.2 per cent of the line’s daily ridership.
The addition of these three new metrics comes after Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow told Parliament on Sept 22 that he had asked LTA to provide the public with more data to give a fuller picture of rail performance.
LTA previously said it would look into publishing more indicators, including those that better reflect the impact of disruptions on passengers.
It added that these indicators would allow for more international comparisons with major metros that use similar reliability measurements beyond MKBF.Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said that while the new indicators show the MRT network is reliable and comparable to rail systems in Hong Kong and Japan, the average passenger caught in a train disruption might feel otherwise.
“Even if most of your journeys go without a hitch, you won’t feel good the moment you encounter a train disruption,” he added.
While the estimate of passengers affected by delays provides a sense of the impact of a disruption, Prof Theseira said more data, such as extra time spent travelling during breakdowns and narrower ranges for the number of passengers impacted, would provide a better gauge of the severity of disruptions.
He suggested that the authorities consider looking into the time that passengers spend on their daily commute – in the absence of a train disruption – to get a fuller picture of the passenger experience.
Citing peak-hour crowds on the NEL as an example, Prof Theseira said such a measurement would account for the extra waiting time of passengers who cannot get into a crowded train and have to wait for the next one, or the longer journeys of those who “backtrack” by taking a train in the opposite direction. THE STRAITS TIMES
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