NOVEMBER 10 ― The government, through caretaker transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, has apologised to commuters of the Kelana Jaya Light Rail Transit (LRT) line for the inconvenience caused by the disruption of service due to a faulty Automated Train Control (ATC) system.

Wee said although LRT owner Prasarana Malaysia Bhd is a company under the Minister of Finance Incorporated, he also had to take responsibility for being a part of the government.

He could have just said that he took responsibility as transport minister, albeit in a caretaker capacity.

When train service disruptions occurred on Singapore’s MRT North-South Line (NSL) operated by SMRT Trains Ltd (SMRT) on December 15, 2011, the Republic’s transport minister then was out of the country but took to his responsibility as minister to post a statement on his Facebook page where he announced that there would be a "health check” on Singapore's train systems.

The minister, Lui Tuck Yew, said that he had directed the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to assemble a team of relevant experts, including possibly relevant overseas experts to help in the review.

The disruptions on December 15 happened during the evening rush hour. Four trains lost traction power and stalled on the north-bound track between the City Hall and Braddell stations.

The Republic’s main newspaper, The Straits Times, reported that many commuters waited for up to an hour in the windowless carriage. A photo of a train door with its window smashed open by a fire extinguisher to let in air was widely circulated on the Internet. Commuters also had to walk through the tunnels to reach the nearest MRT stations to be able to exit.

The LTA and SMRT activated their emergency plans in response to the disruption of service. However, the bus bridging services mobilised to transport passengers between the affected stations were unable to accommodate the volume of displaced commuters.

Commuters were also frustrated by inadequate information and the large crowd. Station staff tried their best to alleviate passengers’ transport problems, but they were themselves hampered by limited manpower and information.

Altogether, some 127,000 commuters were affected by the disruption which lasted five hours.

Two days later, on the morning of December 17, service was again disrupted. Four trains were immobilized along the north-bound and south-bound tracks and another train was pre-emptively detrained.

About 94,000 commuters were affected by the ensuing seven-hour disruption which was relatively better-managed, thanks to lessons that SMRT and LTA had learnt from the incident two days before. Despite that, the minister readily acknowledged that both incidents were disruptive and poorly managed, causing "a significant amount of frustration and distress to commuters, especially passengers in stalled trains who were put in a position of great duress.”

In Parliament, the minister said: "For the disruption to have happened on 15 December, and again on 17 December, was clearly unacceptable to Singaporeans.”

During the same parliamentary session, the minister announced that a Committee of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the incidents had been convened on December 29. The Committee comprised three capable and experienced members, chosen for their legal, operational and technical expertise.

Under its Terms of Reference, the COI conducted an independent investigation into both technical and non-technical aspects of the incidents. The Committee investigated the sequence of events leading to the disruptions, as well as established the technical, systematic and other causes that had contributed to the disruptions.

Based on the findings, the COI made recommendations to minimise the recurrence of similar incidents, as well as improve the management of such incidents. The full report of the proceedings, findings and recommendations was duly submitted upon completion of the investigation, and made public. (See, for example, the Executive Summary of the report here.)

Will the Malaysian public get to see the establishment of a COI or a Special Task Force (STF) like the one established to investigate allegations made by former attorney-general (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas in his memoirs, My Story: Justice in The Wilderness, and the report made public?

By the way, following the December 15 incident, the SMRT CEO then called for a press conference where she apologised for the five-hour long evening disruption. She said SMRT was very sorry that the disruption had happened.

An online news source quoted her as saying that she would consider resigning if necessary, but would reserve her opinion on the matter for the time being. She was commenting on public calls for her and other senior management to resign.

Three weeks later, the SMRT chairman announced that the CEO had resigned.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.