Improving public transport a priority: PM Lee
He says the govt will continue to make major social and infrastructure investments even as spending needs grow
Singapore
MAJOR train disruptions may "loom large in the public consciousness" now, but improving Singapore's infrastructure is a priority, especially in public transport where commuters should eventually see better reliability, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday.
He was referring to a tunnel flooding near Bishan station last month and a train collision at Joo Koon last week that left 36 people injured - his first comments on the latest in a series of recent transport woes.
Speaking at the People's Action Party (PAP) Convention, Mr Lee, the party's secretary-general, said: "These incidents should not have happened. But they have, and we must learn the right lessons from them, get to the root of the problems, and put things right."
The authorities will continue expanding the public transport network as well, and make other major social and infrastructure investments, he said, adding that taxes will be raised as spending needs grow.
On the recent train incidents, Mr Lee stressed that improving train reliability is a "very complicated problem".
Besides technical issues, it involves others such as strengthening the organisations to deliver consistent high performance, reinforcing engineering and maintenance teams, and maintaining morale.
But efforts by train operators SMRT and SBS Transit, as well as government agencies, have been "showing results" with "fewer delays and breakdowns than before", even if people may not feel it yet with major incidents hurting public confidence, said Mr Lee.
Upgrades on signalling systems for the North-South Line, and eventually, the East-West Line, will cause their own set of delays, he said.
"Once the signalling upgrade is fully completed, hopefully within a year's time, these delays should go away," he said, adding that it was important to give the transport team the time and space to work the problems out.
He said Singapore already has a "first-class transport system", with its reliability comparable to other cities in the world.
The top cities in the world for reliability are Hong Kong, Taipei, Los Angeles and Singapore, he added, with trains being on time over 99 per cent of the time.
"The Transport Minister has one of the toughest jobs in Cabinet ... I want (Khaw) Boon Wan and his team to know that they have our full confidence and support," Mr Lee said.
Besides improving train reliability, the authorities will also expand the public transport network with major investments such as the High Speed Rail to Kuala Lumpur, and sign the agreement with Malaysia for the Rapid Transit System link in December.
Singapore will also double the capacities of its air and sea ports with Changi's Terminal 5 and a megaport in Tuas. The megaport will open up the Great Southern Waterfront for longer-term development, a new area thrice the size of Marina Bay, he said.
"But the investments and social spending are costly, and we have to make sure that we can afford them," he said.
Mr Lee added that government spending will rise further, spending needs will grow, and raising taxes, as Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said earlier, is "not a matter of whether, but when".
The prime minister was not the only speaker to bring up rail issues at the event on Sunday.
Mr Khaw, who is also PAP chairman, promised commuters in an earlier speech that the government would complete its work on the MRT lines.
He added that he had arrived at the event via the North-South Line, and that commuters had come forward to encourage him.
Mr Khaw said: "I thanked them and I promised them, we shall complete this work. And we will. This is a promise."
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