We refer to Lianhe Zaobao’s commentary “Decline in MRT reliability”, 14 Sept 2025 suggesting that LTA was selective in comparing our rail reliability to other metro systems in its Rail Reliability Report.

There is no standard international measure of rail reliability. Metro operators around the world publish different statistics depending on variables such as the size and age of their systems, train frequencies, distance run and perception of commuter impact. As a result, it is not straightforward to compare across different systems. LTA has made best efforts to identify other systems that publish comparable statistics, including for well performing systems like Hong Kong, Taipei and some Japanese cities. The data shows that our MRT system is certainly not just better than “the last student in class”, but compares very well with these best-in-class systems.

Our rail reliability, as measured by Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF), has indeed fallen and we do want to perform better. Our target has been to achieve an MKBF of 1 million train-km both at the system and line level, which we have done over many years. Beyond 1 million train-km, the MKBF is less meaningful as it is highly sensitive to small variations. For instance, the MKBF for the Downtown Line (DTL) was 8.13 million train-km in 2024, as there was only one delay of more than five minutes that year. However, in the 12-month period ending Jun 2025, just one additional delay halved the MKBF for the DTL to about 4.12 million train-km.

The intent of publishing our statistics is to reflect our commitment to rail reliability and accountability for our performance. We are committed to working closely with the rail operators for each line, to address the cause of each incident, avoid a repeat, and strive towards minimising inconvenience to our commuters.

Yeo Teck Guan (Mr) (姚德源) 
Senior Group Director, Public Transport (公共交通组高级总署长) 
Land Transport Authority