SINGAPORE, July 22 — Two years after being hit with a record S$2 million (RM5.12 million) fine, train operator SMRT has been penalised to the tune of S$1.6 million, this time for a series of miscues that were mostly down to human error.

SBS Transit, meanwhile, was fined S$50,000 for a 40-minute disruption on March 21, caused by carelessness during maintenance works during service hours.

The maximum fine is S$1 million or 10 per cent of the annual fare revenue of a rail line, whichever is higher, for incidents after March 25.

SMRT was fined S$2 million in 2012 for the two December 2011 train disruptions, which affected more than 200,000 commuters and led to the resignation of the then-CEO Saw Phaik Hwa, while a Committee of Inquiry was formed to look into the case.

The fines announced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday were for four incidents that took place between October last year and May. In two of the incidents — one on Oct 9 last year and one on Jan 22 — SMRT’s drivers ran the red signals, bringing services to a halt. In both cases, SMRT’s Operations Control Centre (OCC) had failed to spot the drivers’ infringement and did not stop the trains before they damaged the tracks.

The LTA fined SMRT S$400,000 for the Oct 9 incident, and S$900,000 for the Jan 22 incident.

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday on the incidents, Mr Yeo Teck Guan, the LTA’s Group Director of Public Transport, said although another incident on Jan 20 affected more commuters, failing to stop at a red signal is a more severe breach which could put passengers in danger, and hence called for heftier fines.

In both incidents, the trains were taken off the automatic mode and were under manual control, which is done only if there is a fault, such as signalling problems. Under this mode, the OCC is expected to exercise close supervision over train movements, which did not happen, he said.

For the Jan 20 morning peak hour disruption between Yio Chu Kang and Ang Mo Kio stations, which affected 19,000 passengers, SMRT was fined S$200,000. Its maintenance staff had neglected to close two circuit breakers after routine checks on the train the night before, and the driver failed to notice that indicators for train faults were lit. For the fourth incident on May 2, SMRT was fined S$100,000. Its staff forgot to remove a short-circuiting clamp while conducting sleeper replacement works.

Signs put up at MRT stations on January 22, 2014 informing commuters of the train service disruption between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations. — Today file picture

Mr Yeo said the authority takes a serious view towards these incidents. “They are really preventable if the staff had actually carried out their duties with due diligence and vigilance.”

The LTA will further tighten oversight on operators’ training regimes. On top of already checking if they have complied with training processes, such as whether refresher courses are duly scheduled and completed, it will now “go even further” by looking at course content to make sure they deliver the required competencies.

Asked if these human errors could be due to fatigue, Mr Yeo said they were probably due to a failure of communication protocols, staff not being safety-conscious, or staff carelessness.

Mr Patrick Nathan, SMRT’s vice-president of corporate information and communications, said the company has since reviewed their procedures to further tighten existing operating and maintenance processes. For example, radio protocol has been strengthened to ensure that instructions received by drivers are clear and concise and drivers are now required to double-authenticate every instruction during manual mode driving.

Ms Tammy Tan, SBS Transit’s senior vice-president of corporate communications, said since the March incident, SBS has “tightened our processes to ensure that such a lapse is not repeated”.

Dr Park Byung Joon, head of the urban transport management programme at SIM University’s School of Business, said the emphasis on enhancing maintenance practices since the December 2011 disruptions is “starting to show some improvements”.

“However, human errors can happen anytime, particularly those related to complacency. One way to reduce the human error is to develop a culture to instil professional pride in the railway personnel in what they are doing.” — Today