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MRT reliability drops to its lowest level since 2020

Train service reliability has dropped over the 12-month period ending in June this year to its lowest level since 2020.

These figures were released by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday (5 Sept), in its latest Performance of Rail Service Reliability report.

MRT reliability gauged by mean kilometres between failures

The statistics are based on a 12-month moving average of mean kilometres between failures (MKBF), which is an engineering measure of rail reliability.

According to the report, MRT trains ran 1.598 million train-km without disruptions of more than five minutes between July 2024 and June 2025.

This is a steep drop from the 1.982 million train-km recorded between delays in 2024.

It is also the lowest figure recorded since 2020, when trains travelled an average of 1.451 million train-km without delays.

Source: Land Transport Authority

DTL sees sharp decline, overtaken by NEL as best performer

Among the individual lines, three out of five considered saw a dip in reliability: the Downtown Line (DTL), North-South Line (NSL), and East-West Line (EWL).

The remaining two lines improved in reliability — the North-East Line (NEL) and Circle Line (CCL).

Previously the best performer for four years, the DTL saw a sharp decline and has now been overtaken by the NEL, which rose to 4.229 million train-km travelled between delays.

Despite its improvement, the CCL was still the worst performer, going just 1.069 million train-km between delays.

Notably, the EWL, which was the second-best performer in 2023, was overtaken by both the NEL and NSL in 2024 but has since done better than the NSL after the latter itself plummeted.

Source: Land Transport Authority

The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) was not included in the report as its current operating figures do not accurately reflect its reliability compared with the other lines.

LRT reliability improves

Perhaps surprisingly, the reliability of the LRT network has significantly improved, with an overall MKBF of 534,000 car-km between delays, up from 382,000 car-km in 2023.

Source: Land Transport Authority

The Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT) contributed most to the uptick, soaring to an MKBF of 1.252 million car-km from 549,000 car-km in 2024.

The Bukit Panjang LRT (BPLRT) remained steady and improved slightly to 247,000 car-km between delays, from 232,000 car-km in 2024.

Source: Land Transport Authority

Service delays may be on a downward trend

Finally, the number of service delays may also be on a downward trend on the MRT network.

There have been only two service delays of more than 30 minutes across the entire MRT network in the first half of this year.

This is compared with six for the whole of 2020, seven in 2022 and 2024 and five in 2023.

Source: Land Transport Authority

For the LRT, no service delays were recorded in the first six months of 2025.

Report doesn’t cover disruptions since July

However, these results come with a caveat — they do not cover the incidents that have occurred since July.

For example, the BPLRT was hit by two major disruptions in July, affecting the entire network.

A portion of the EWL then had no service for about five hours on 6 Aug.

Service on the NEL and SPLRT also went down on 12 Aug, in what was described as a rare “double fault” scenario.

The SPLRT was again disrupted on 15 Aug, leading to passengers having to walk on the tracks to safety.

Most recently, DTL train service came to a halt across a number of stations in the early morning of 28 Aug.

Also read: Jeffrey Siow calls recent MRT disruptions ‘disappointing’, promises improvements in relaying information

Jeffrey Siow calls recent MRT disruptions ‘disappointing’, promises improvements in relaying information

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