Readers Response Draft

In the article “Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system” , Lee Min Kok (2015) states that the World’s most profitable system is 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 delay 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”. Thus, Hong Kong's railway is a reliable system. Singapore's Transport Minister, Khaw Boon Wan is impressed with the standards of MTR and feels that Singapore should use them to benchmark our reliability standards.

Based on the article, Singapore’s train system should follow Hong Kong’s good practices to ensure a more reliable train system but not use it as a benchmark, as the population size and cost of maintenance are not similar.

The difference in population size should not be used as a benchmark as Hong Kong has 7.1 million people with an annual growth of 0.4%. On the other hand, Singapore has 5.7 million people with an annual growth of 1.9%. In the article, Lay (2016) states that more than 5 million passengers use Hong Kong’s MTR daily. Whereas only an approximate of 152,000 passengers use Singapore’s MRT daily. Based on the findings stated above, about 70% of Hong Kong’s population takes the railway daily. However, only about 2.7% of Singapore’s population takes the railway daily. Lee (2016) in another Straits Times article mentions that according to a government survey, more Singaporeans take bus as compared to MRT. Based on LTA (2015) statistics, there is an increasing number of commuters using transport such as bus and taxis. Therefore, it is very hard to benchmark against Hong Kong as not only the population size is different but the percentage of commuters using the railway is different as well. Moreover, even though Hong Kong is roughly two times bigger than Singapore in size, they only have approximately 1.4 million more people as compared to Singapore. Thus, with population density being different as well, it is not logical to benchmark Singapore’s system against Hong Kong’s system.

Apart from the population size, the cost of maintenance in Singapore should not be benchmark against Hong Kong as well. Lay (2016) mention that more than one third of Hong Kong’s S$1.08 billion of revenue is used on maintenance. Whereas, Singapore only use 19% of S$121.9 million on maintenance. Lam (2017) prove to us by statistics that the average salaries in Hong Kong are 25% higher as compared to Singapore. Therefore, manpower pay would be different. Since labour cost is different, it would not be a fair comparison to benchmark Singapore’s cost of maintenance against Hong Kong’s as definitely they would be spending a lot more just on labour itself.

In conclusion, no doubt that Hong Kong’s reliable MTR is a fantastic reference point to tap on to their good practices. However, it is not fair to benchmark Singapore’s railway system against Hong Kong’s railway system as there are too many variables for a decent comparison.

Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore). (2017, September 29). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)

Hong Kong vs Singapore: population, total area, density of population compared. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://morelesscompare.com/cities/hong-kong-vs-singapore/

Lay, B (2016, May 19). How successful is Hong Kong’s MTR compared to S’pore’s MRT? Unbelievable. Out of this world. Retrieved from https://mothership.sg/2016/05/how-successful-is-hong-kongs-mtr-compared-to-spores-mrt-unbelievable-out-of-this-world/

Lee, P. (2016, October 11). More Singaporeans take bus, MRT to work: government survey. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/more-singaporeans-take-bus-mrt-to-work-government-survey

Country size comparison. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/hong-kong/singapore

Lam, E. (2017, June 28). Hong Kong or Singapore: Which City Is Best for Expats? Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/hong-kong-or-singapore-salaries-cost-of-living-and-housing