Eurasia Review
18 January 2017
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Getting Singapore Smart City-Ready: MRT Disruptions as a Spur? – Analysis
Getting Singapore Smart City-Ready: MRT Disruptions as a Spur? – Analysis
The frequent breakdowns of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system have been a source of frustration for both commuters and operators. This notwithstanding, the MRT is part of a key infrastructure for Singapore to be smart-city ready. How can we turn these technical challenges into platforms to foster and strengthen public trust?
Launched in late 2014, Singapore’s Smart Nation programme aims to leverage on data networks and information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality of life and bring Singapore to the future. One way to acclimatise Singaporeans to the idea is to make use of existing smart city infrastructure.
With the billions of dollars spent on the MRT system in the past decades, the MRT infrastructure is already embedded with the feedback loops and the tracker sensor systems which the MRT operators – SMRT and SBS Transit – employ to figure out how long trips take from station to station. Thus, the MRT infrastructure is smart-city ready.
… Christopher Lim is Senior Fellow in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman and Vincent Mack is Associate Research Fellow in the Centre for Non-traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre), both at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This is part of a series.
NSSP / NTS Centre / Online
Last updated on 24/01/2017
