On Saturday Oct. 7, the North-South MRT line was flooded, with one train left stranded. It took the combined efforts of SMRT, the SCDF, and PUB to drain the water out of the tunnels and restore service to the stricken line by the afternoon the next day.

It was nine days later that a press conference was held at the SMRT Bishan Depot to explain how and why the flood occurred. The big names present included:

• Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan
• LTA CEO Ngien Hoon Ping
• LTA Deputy Chief Executive (Infrastructure & Development) Chua Chong Kheng
• SMRT Chairman Seah Moon Ming
• SMRT President and Group CEO Desmond Kuek
• SMRT Trains CEO, Lee Ling Wee
• Chairperson of Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport and MP Sitoh Yih-Pin

Both Seah and Kuek took responsibility for the disruption, apologised, and asked for the public's patience while maintenance and upgrading work was carried out. Seah even took a bow to show his deep sense of regret.

After the press conference concluded, however, one nagging question still remained. Why didn't someone say something sooner?

Khaw was hosting an ASEAN meeting

Khaw began his speech by addressing the delay in informing the public.

"I could have done so last week, in two days as soon as we established the facts. But I was really very busy hosting the ASEAN meeting, and that's why we waited until today. But whatever follow up action that need to be done had started and proceeded immediately after the incident. So nothing was being held up because of this delay."

The meeting Khaw was referring to was the 23rd ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting & Associated Dialogue Partner Meetings (with China, Japan and South Korea) that took place on Oct. 12 and 13. It was Singapore and Khaw's turn to host.

Despite this, couldn't Khaw have posted an update, however brief, about the ongoing repairs and investigations at Bishan MRT station?

Although Khaw is active on social media, he did not post an update until the press conference on Oct. 16. That's a period of silence of nine days on the incident.

Bear in mind that he also posted about matters not related to the ASEAN meeting, such as this one about transport-related start-ups on Oct. 13.

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When asked about the lack of communication during the QnA session, Khaw said:

"I think the disruption was well-publicised, you know, there were tweets...I received all those messages. But your point is what was the cause. I thought I explained right at the beginning I could have conducted this thing last week, but I was truly very busy with my ASEAN chairing of the Ministerial meeting. And I could have delegated it to somebody else to do it, but I think that would be shedding responsibility. This thing happened under my watch and I wanted to hold this meeting."

But while it's commendable that he did not duck the issue, he could have said something much earlier to set the public mind at ease, and didn't.

What about Desmond Kuek?

Even if Khaw did not want to delegate away his duty, there was nothing preventing Kuek and SMRT from making a public statement of their own.

While SMRT's twitter account provided updates on service availability, there wasn't an explanation given for the flood, or what was being done to prevent a repeat incident.

[NSL]: No train svc btwn #AngMoKio & #Newton due to flooding in tunnel. Pls seek alternative transport.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) October 7, 2017

[NSL] UPDATE: We are unable to resume train svcs btwn #Newton & #AngMoKio stations till further notice as works require more time.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) October 8, 2017

Only LTA gave an explanation, with a spokesperson giving a statement on Sunday, Oct. 8 to certain media outlets. Perhaps both MOT and SMRT felt that was enough until the press conference could be held, eight days later.

Public dressing-down

It was quite a sight to see the Minister for Transport castigate the senior management of a government-linked company so publicly.

Khaw made it clear where the responsibility for the flood lie, when he expressed his disbelief that the flooding occurred in the first place.

"Bottom line is, MRT tunnels should not be flooded, full-stop."

He said that the anti-flooding systems had been poorly maintained, and pointed out that the rainfall on Oct. 7 could not have caused a flood if maintenance was done properly.

"Obviously the tank or the pit, whatever you call it, cannot be maintained properly. And that's why flooding happened. The SMRT team in charge of maintaining the anti-flood system at Bishan has failed us."

Erosion of public confidence

In this day and age where communication is key and responsiveness is everything,  a delay in accounting for a problem that has a huge public impact and taking responsibility for it will only result in erosion of public confidence.

While the SMRT bigwigs eventually made the right kind of statements, doing so nine days after the fact rather undermines its impact. Negative impressions have already been formed and hardened in the meantime.

During his speech, Seah asked for patience and understanding while SMRT carried out its work.

It remains to be seen if Singaporeans are willing to do so. The company certainly has a long way to go in rebuilding its image and recovering the confidence of commuters in the reliability of its operations.

Top photo by Sulaiman Daud.