SMRT Corp Ltd : SMRT Board statement

22 December 2011

SMRT Corporation Ltd

251 North Bridge Road

Singapore 179102

Tel : [phone]

Fax : [phone] www.smrt.com.sg

SMRT Board Statement

The Board of SMRT apologises to the travelling public for service disruptions in the past week.
We acknowledge the disruptions to our train service last week were of an unprecedented scale since SMRT started operating the service 24 years ago.
The Board's priority is the safety of our commuters and reliability of our system, and to ensure that management is adequately resourced and maintenance not compromised.
Our immediate focus is to do everything necessary to regain the confidence of our commuters and the public by ensuring safe, reliable operations and improved communications processes.
SMRT will work closely with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to restore service levels as quickly as possible without compromising the safety of our system. The Board has full confidence in the technical competence of our professional team in managing and maintaining our train system.
The Prime Minister has said the government will be appointing a Committee of Inquiry (COI). SMRT will assist the COI in whatever ways we may be called upon to do. The CEO whom the Board holds accountable for the proper management of SMRT, and her team, will have to play an important role in this.
The Board takes the recent disruptions very seriously and has appointed Mr Ong Ye Kung, an independent Director of SMRT, to head an investigation team comprising external experts and internal resources to conduct the investigation into the root causes of the disruptions, adequacy of our emergency response and the required remedial actions. This is an internal investigation separate from the COI and the team will report to the Board. Where issues are identified that require action, the Board will take that action. And we will share the results of our internal investigation with the COI.
The disruptions last week have shown we need to improve on our emergency response and management procedures, as well as how we communicate with commuters and the public in an incident of this scale. We hear the public's concern in this regard. We will move quickly to implement learning points that have come out of these disruptions.

CRN: 200001855H

SMRT Corporation Ltd

Some immediate actions and improvements have already been taken, but we acknowledge more needs to be done, and we will do so.
Mr Koh Yong Guan, Chairman of SMRT, said, "My colleagues and I take the disruptions and inconveniences caused to our train passengers last week very seriously. The Board will spare no effort and resources to ensure that SMRT earns back the confidence of the commuters and public. We apologise to the travelling public for the disruptions and inconveniences in the last week."

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CRN: 200001855H