Tag Archives: Bukit Panjang LRT

Our reader mocks the PAP for building Bukit Panjang LRT due to political pressure and wonders if the same is true for the upcoming Downtown Line. "As a Minister, Khaw has failed miserably. It seems he only knows ow to blame everyone else except himself".

This was in response to the question posed by WP MP Pritam Singh, on whether the Bukit Panjang LRT was an “afterthought” built under “political pressure”. The term was used by Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan last month, who had also taken aim at the LRT's "twists and turns' design. Mr Ng also further blamed the design flaw as being adapted from an airport system to a housing estate, and said that “It was a ‘straight-line’ design which had to be adapted to undulating terrain and sharp turns."

Bukit Panjang’s LRT system is now due to be overhauled after logging hundreds of operational mishaps since its introduction. The list runs the gamut from track faults and dislodged wheels to doors opening while in transit and trains either breaking down, stalling or failing to stop. In some cases, commuters have even had to walk along raised outdoor tracks, although severe delays and disruptions have been a more common issue.

Finally, after 18 long years, the Bukit Panjang LRT system is set to undergo a major overhaul. Experts have come out and say in the wake of the decision to overhaul is that the system that needs most work is the trains and the signalling system itself. The SMRT had also said that the current system is more suited for short distances on flat terrain, rather than gradients - which it passes through in the Bukit Panjang area now. Makes you wonder when they first did the LRT system, did they not take this into consideration?

In an article by TODAY (Massive waste to take down BPLRT system: Experts, 7 Oct), several experts were quoted as saying that the Bukit Panjang LRT line was “doomed from the start.” It makes one wonder how much foresight or lack of had gone into the design and deployment of the system.

Can't fix the Bukit Panjang LRT problems? Easy, just scrap the whole system and start a new one!