TRANSPORT operator SMRT has unveiled a system that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) to help improve rail reliability on the Circle Line mass rapid transit (MRT) network at an official launch on Monday (Aug 14) at its Kim Chuan Depot.

Named Overwatch, it can monitor rail systems in real time with both AI and video analysis to provide a live overview of trains in operation, and also detect and predict anomalies or problems.

As a result, it can help operations staff circumvent issues and reduce response time and delays to commuters, the company said.

SMRT first deployed the system on the Circle Line in 2020, because it is a fully unmanned MRT line, and Overwatch’s capabilities would help bolster operations there.

Overwatch has helped contribute to a “30 per cent drop in delays of up to five minutes” and “high reliability” of more than a million mean kilometres before failures (MKBF), a metric of rail reliability.

The system will be deployed to the North-South Line and East-West Line by the end of 2024. “Maintaining good, reliable service in a growing network, and doing so in a financially sustainable manner, goes beyond infrastructural upgrading and maintenance,” said Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, and Ministry of Transport, Dr Amy Khor, in a speech at the launch. 

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She cited SMRT’s efforts as an example of the sort of technological innovation needed to improve the operational effectiveness and reliability of rail transport. The project is part of SMRT’s digitalisation efforts to improve the way the company works by using advanced technology, in order to “do our work better or do more with less,” said Lam Sheau Kai, the president of SMRT Trains.

SMRT is applying for a patent for the system, which was developed by SMRT subsidiary Strides Engineering, and it is able to offer the system commercially to other rail operators. Overwatch received an award for Operational Excellence at the International Association of Public Transport Awards event in June 2023.

Land Transport Authority data indicated that the Circle Line has a 12-month moving average of 1,473,000 MKBF, the fourth performer out of five MRT lines operating here and above the North-South Line at 1,101,000 MKBF.

Rail reliability in Singapore has remained high despite delays in the first quarter of 2023, reported The Straits Times, as all rail lines here exceeded one million MKBF. In 2017, the target was 300,000 MKBF.

This is not the first time SMRT has used AI-enabled systems to improve its operations. In July 2023 it introduced iSafe, a system for monitoring platform safety on the Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit line.