Granted that the North-South and East-West lines are in use for more than 20 years, train faults are bound to happen now and then. However, the frequency of the recent faults and delays happening is not acceptable. The scales of the incidents are also increasing with the most recent one affecting almost the whole of Singapore.

SMRT, being the operator of both lines, needs to be answerable to the consumers paying increasing fares, and taxpayers if government subsidies are granted. It should not be answering to shareholders or investors, which is the nature of a corporation earning profits that it is now. LTA, being the authority to look after our transportation needs, should not be able to only penalise the operators with just fines.

I think the LTA should dictate and monitor the operators in upgrading the infrastructure and increasing manpower for maintenance. This is possible when the operators are non-profit organisations. They will not have to maximise profits to pay dividends to shareholders or investors. Instead of paying high salaries and big bonuses to executives and managers, they will need to reinvest the revenue on upgrading and recruitment as well as rewarding the ground or frontline staff.

When it comes to public systems, corporatisation and privatisation is not the answer nor the way forward. If the employees of the public transport operators claim ownership or has a stake in the organisations, and that everyone share the benefits more or less at the same level, there will not be a need to have a complex structure/hierarchy and productivity can increase without substantial increase in costs.