Reader Response Draft 1

In the article “Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system” , Lee Min Kok (2015) reported about the World’s most profitable system MTR Corporation. With high train frequency, passengers rarely experience delay even during peak hours. Lee mentions that a small percentage of passengers in Hong Kong (0.1%) encounter delays as compared to Singapore (4%). Investments of over HK$6 billion have been made on high maintenance and service improvements which kept the system operating efficiently together. The preserving, restoration and service enhancement on train system takes up about a third of MTRC's funds. Lastly, the system is being controlled by an Operation Control Centre to prevent any shortcomings and reacting to downtime efficiently with the use of the black “incident box”.  It is agreeable that Singapore has much to improve on its MRT system. While it may be beneficial for Singapore to learn the ropes from Hong Kong, it is unfair to solely use Hong Kong’s MTR system as a benchmark due to the vast differences in factors such as population and land area.  

These days, large organizations turn to benchmarking to help improve their overall performances through identifying improvement opportunities, defining best practices, and creating a competitive environment within the organization. By identifying improvement opportunities, an organization can have a clearer view on what can and needs be done better, hence allowing it to better define their practices for optimal results. In this case, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan had “identified the MTR, which is run by the MTR Corporation, as the system that local rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit should use to benchmark reliability standards.” As of late, Singapore has been experiencing quite a number of train disruptions due to train faults that would often result in delays of up to one hour. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s MTR system “enjoys an on-time rate of 99.9 %” and passengers experience a delay of at least five minutes every 300,000km travelled as reported by Lee (2015).  Hence, using Hong Kong as a benchmark would push local rail operators to seek and define best practices to cater to the needs of Singaporeans which would result in an increase in satisfaction. 

However, though local transport operators should view Hong Kong's MTR as a prime example, it is important to take into account the varying factors.