Khaw: Declaring return of defective trains could have caused undue panic

26 trains that had cracks were shipped back to China for repairs recently (AFP photo)

Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan said that announcing the return of the defective SMRT trains to China for repairs could have caused undue panic.

Khaw, who was speaking at the Bishan Depot on Tuesday (12 July), said going public for something that was not “a major event” was unnecessary, according to a report by Channel NewsAsia. To engineers, he added, not all cracks are the same.

“If all cracks have to be reported, if they do not cause any of those issues on safety, they will have to think about what is the impact on the ground.

“Looking back, I think it’s understandable,” he said, adding that if there was a safety issue, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) would have gone public.

Even if there were no safety concerns, Khaw said that should repair works require many trains to be taken away, his ministry and LTA will explain about the reduced capacity of the rail system due to a recall.

Hong Kong-based news agency FactWire first reported on 5 July that the defective trains were being sent back to China. The report added that the details of the defects and the recall have been kept secret in both Singapore and China.

Singapore’s Ministry of Transport said on the same day that the trains will be repaired by 2019.