Summary + Thesis stance + Reader Response - Draft 2 [Trains on NSEL safe for service] [Learning Portfolio]

In the following news release, “Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service”, Land Transport Authority (LTA) (2016) addresses the problems it faces in regards to the trains. The actions taken to resolve the problems and how trains were subjected to tests to ensure their safeness and integrity were also mentioned. The article talks about one episode whereby the train’s “battery housing” flew open due to pressure. It also mentions the cracks that were found on the “draughtscreen” of 5 trains, are due to faults during the installation process. However, operations of train services were not affected as these problems were rectified immediately. LTA states that ‘hairline cracks’ were also found on the car-body shell were caused during the production period. As it was impossible to repair the cracks, affected trains under warranty were sent back for replacement of parts at no cost. With a view to complete the rectification programme, LTA expresses that  two trains would be sent for servicing at a time. Nonetheless, this would be dependent on the arrival of new trains along with the current ones which are undergoing re-signalling.  In my opinion, even though LTA addresses the problems and their efforts in getting the job done quickly, they should have address about the issue being in the spotlight in offline and online media.

The same news release says that a large number of trains was sent back for rectification works. In another news release, (LTA, 2014) announces that the contract for 91 news trains would be awarded to “Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium.” Also in another news release, (C.Tan. 2016) states that the first hairline crack was discovered in 2013 and the first train sent back was after the contract being awarded. This would mean that despite knowing the trains having defects, the authority still believed in the manufacturers and hence awarding them the contract.  In the same news, he also said that the contracts were awarded to them as they took the initiative to be accountable for the issue and the offer had the best “price, quality and life cycle cost”. As one of the concern was the issue being in the spotlight in offline and online media, the fact that the new trains will be manufactured by the same contractors can cause doubts regarding its reliability among the people. Hence, LTA should have mentioned these reasons beforehand which could have prevented the problem.

Furthermore, in reference to Channel News Asia, (K.Lim, 2016) mentions that the people only found out about the issue after a news media based in Hong Kong reported about the trains being ‘secretly’ sent back to China for repair. Although the claims might not be the entire truth, the public who mainly relies on public transportation only found out about the issue from a third party could get misunderstood. Transport Minister Mr Khaw was quoted saying, the issue did not go public as it is not a major problem and if there are any safety issues, they would have gone public immediately. However, in my opinion, despite not having any safety issues, people would have wanted to know of the problem as most of the population relies on these trains as a mean of transportation every day. 

In conclusion, LTA should have reported the issue to the public as soon as the information were ready so that the public would not have to hear from a third party and his would have prevented the issue from being in the spotlight in online and offline media.

C.Tan. (2016). Hairline cracks in 26 MRT trains made in China. The Straits Times.

Retrieved September 24, 2016 from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/hairline-cracks-in-26-mrt-trains-made-in-china

K.Lim. (2016). Going public on train cracks could have caused undue panic: Khaw. The Straits Times. Retrieved September 24, 2016 from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/going-public-on-train/2950576.html

Land Transport Authority. (2014) Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/Csr Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium Awarded Prestigious Contract Worth $749 Million Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=f0b205a6-69ab-49b0-b94d-65384ee5e5c0

Land Transport Authority.(2016)Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=0f8b1220-0289-4bef-99c9-b2455f17a66c#_ftn1

Summary + Thesis stance + Reader Response - Draft 1 [Trains on NSEL safe for service] [Learning Portfolio]

In the following news release, “Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service”, Land Transport Authority (LTA) (2016) addresses the problems it faces in regards to the trains produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang. It also stated the actions taken to resolve the problems and how trains were subjected to tests to ensure their safeness and integrity. The article mentions one episode whereby the train’s “battery housing” flew open due to pressure. It also mentioned the cracks that were found on the “draughtscreen” of 5 trains are due to faults during the installation process. However, operations of train services were not affected as these problems were rectified immediately. LTA stated that ‘hairline cracks’ were also found on the car-body shell were caused during the production period. As it is impossible to repair the cracks, affected trains under warranty were sent back for replacement of parts at no cost. With a view to complete the rectification programme, LTA expresses that it will send two trains at a time for servicing. Nevertheless, this is dependent on the arrival of new trains along with the current ones which are undergoing re-signalling.  In my opinion, even though LTA addresses the problems and their efforts in getting the job done quickly, however it should have addressed the problem regarding the issue being in the current media and online discussion.

In the article by LTA (2016) [1], a large number of trains had to be sent back for rectification works. In the news release, LTA (2014) [2] announced that a contract to deliver 91 trains for the Thomson and Eastern Region Lines will be awarded to “Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium.” Also, in another news release [3], Christopher.T. stated that the first hairline crack was discovered in 2013 and the first train sent back was after the contract being awarded. This meant that despite knowing the trains having defects, the authority still believed in the manufacturers and hence awarding them the contract. In that news article [3], it was said that the contracts were awarded to them as they took the initiative to be accountable for the issue. Also, the offer had the best “price, quality and life cycle cost”. As one of the concern was the issue being in the spotlight in offline and online media, the fact that the new trains will be manufactured by the same contractors can cause doubts regarding its reliability among the people. Hence, LTA should have mentioned these reasons beforehand which could have prevented this from happening.

Furthermore, in reference to Channel News Asia [4], it mentioned that the people only found out about the issue after a news media based in Hong Kong reported about the trains being ‘secretly’ sent back to China for repair. Although the claims might not be the entire truth, the public who mainly relies on public transportation only found out about the issue from a third party might be misunderstood. Transport Minister Mr Khaw was quoted saying, the issue did not go public as it is not a major problem and if there are any safety issues, they would have gone public immediately. However, in my opinion, despite not having any safety issues, people would have want to know of the problem as most of the population relies on these trains as a mean of transportation every day. 

In conclusion, LTA should have reported the issue to the public as soon as the information were ready so that the public would not have to hear from a third party. This would prevent the issue to be in the spotlight of the media and online discussions.

[1] LTA News Releases. (2016)Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=0f8b1220-0289-4bef-99c9-b2455f17a66c#_ftn1

[2] LTA News Releases. (2014) Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/Csr Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium Awarded Prestigious Contract Worth $749 Million Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=f0b205a6-69ab-49b0-b94d-65384ee5e5c0

[3] Christopher,T. (2016). Hairline cracks in 26 MRT trains made in China. The Straits Times.

Retrieved September 24, 2016 from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/hairline-cracks-in-26-mrt-trains-made-in-china

[4] Kenneth.L. (2016). Going public on train cracks could have caused undue panic: Khaw. The Straits Times. Retrieved September 24, 2016 from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/going-public-on-train/2950576.html

3 Things to improve for the trimester!

1.  I have to work on phrasing  better.

2.  I have to improve on my verb tense and forms.

3.  I have to improve on connector and transitions between sentences.

SUMMARY & THESIS - DRAFTS [Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service]

In the following article, “Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service”, Land Transport Authority (2016) addresses the problems that it faced in regards to the North-South and East-West lines trains. It also states the actions taken to resolve the problems and how trains were subjected to tests to ensure their safeness and reliability. The webpage mentioned that complications were found on trains whereby the battery housing flew open due to pressure. Not only that, cracks were also found on the draughtscreen of 5 trains which were due to errors during the installation process. However, operation of train services was not affected as these problems were rectified immediately. LTA states that hairline cracks were also found on the car-body shell which was caused during production period. As it is impossible to repair the cracks, affected trains that were under warranty were sent back for replacement of parts at no costs. With a view to complete the rectification programme, LTA expressed that they will send two trains at a time for servicing. Nevertheless, this is dependent on the arrival of new trains along with the current ones which are undergoing resignalling. Referring to the above content, I agree that they should get the rectification work done quickly to ensure smoother service operations. However, I am doubtful if the focus on the tight schedule might decrease the level of safety standards which might lead to problems again in the future.

Trains on the North-South and East West Lines Safe for Service. (2016). Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=0f8b1220-0289-4bef-99c9-b2455f17a66c#_ftn1

Formal Email Letter [Unit Exercise]

To: Brad Blackstone

From: Camille Chua

Date: 12 September 2016

Subject: Camille’s Introduction

Dear Brad,

I am Camille Chua from Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services) SIE2016 Group 5. My The purpose of this email is to introduce myself, my educational background, my interests as well as my goals and aims in SIT and the future.  

I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic’s Integrated Facility Management back in May 2016. As my course was in the School of  Engineering, I took some related modules back then such as Engineering maths and Building Information modelling. In addition to that, I also took modules related to management and airport operations.

 My interests include travelling, hanging out with my friends and doing sports such as freestyle skating and reading. All these helps me to These activities help me to relax and take stress out of my mind when I have to. I would like to take on new interests such as joining the adventure club and community service club in SIT to make new friends and make life in SIT a more memorable one.

I have aspirations to be a part of the facility management team in the airport one day. Thus, my goals for studying in this SIT program are to acquire the knowledge and technical skills required for my future career as well as to pick up interpersonal skills.  Also, through projects and the interest groups, I hope that I will be able to strengthen my skills in working as a team and communicating well with others. Lastly, I hope that my university life would be a fruitful one.

Thank you for taking time to read my email.

Yours Sincerely,

Camille Chua

Edited: 19/09/16
Commented on Xian Jing's post. 

My English Learning Journey [Learning Portfolio]

The English language was always my least favourite subject during all my education years. Firstly, I had lived with my dialect speaking grandmother up till preschool and hence I was more comfortable with mandarin and dialect rather than English. After entering primary school, I had a hard time trying to understand why we had to learn grammar and all. That made loving to learn English really difficult for me. Even in secondary school, every English lesson was like a torture for me as I could not see the importance and enjoy what I was learning.

Despite that, one thing I do enjoy was reading books. That was the only way I could enjoy using the English language. Reading was also probably the only reason I was able to pick up the basic English writing skills while enjoying it.

However, after entering polytechnic my perception of English changed as we had to do many presentations and reports. That was the first time ever that I realised I have to put in more effort in writing and speaking so that I would not embarrass myself during presentations due to the lack of my command in English. I started appreciating the language more and was able to focus much better in classes since then.

All in all, I am not proficient in the language as of yet, but I am glad I was able to finally understand why English is important and now I want to be better at it. Especially in Singapore where it is a country with people from different races, English serves as the linking bridge for all races to communicate and live together as one. With hard work and determination, I believe one day I will be able to love and be much more competent with the language.

Edited: 15/09/2016
Edited: 19/09/2016
Commented on Rafianah and Cherlyn blog.