SINGAPORE - The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and rail operators have been working hard in reducing downtime and malfunctions of train services, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, he said that maintaining and building the public transport system is a tough and high-pressure job.
"Every night after trains stop running, the maintenance and repair crews have only a few hours to maintain the tracks and trains, to get them ready for another day of service," the Prime Minister wrote.
Mr Lee also assured that steady progress was being made, despite the recent slew of incidents and disruptions.
His comments came after Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew told Parliament on Wednesday that the recent disruptions go against improvements in train services.
Before the recent spate of train service disruptions, the 2014 Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS) conducted by SIM University (UniSIM) revealed that commuters' satisfaction with train services had improved for the first time in four years, rising nearly four per cent from 88.9 per cent in 2013 to 92.8 per cent in 2014.
Mr Lee also highlighted Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew's speech in Parliament, in which he said that more trains would be added and the upgrading of the signalling system on the North-South Line would be completed in the next 12 to 15 months.
"With the new train lines we are building, by 2030 our rail network will be nearly as dense as New York and London," Mr Lee wrote.
"It may take a while, but commuters will benefit from all these efforts."