You are not in the army anymore. No more smoke grenades for you…

Trains were delayed on the North-East Line (NEL) on Thursday morning due to a train fault at Dhoby Ghaut station just a day after SMRT’s CEO, Desmond Kuek proudly announced that the train operator has made great strides in reducing delays.

Although the NEL is not under Desmond’s charge but: `Oh Look! Birds! They do flock together!’

Thursday morning’s delay came after a 25-minute delay on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, SMRT’s CEO Desmond Kuek patted his own back when he claimed that SMRT’s train withdrawal rate – where a train is withdrawn from service because of faults – has come down from 3.3 for every 100,000km operated in 2012 to 1.05 last year.

“This is the lowest in seven years,” Mr Kuek noted. “And we are targeting to go even lower this year.”

Ok good job! Well done!

But can you please tell us the delays caused by track faults? And the delays caused by overcrowded trains. And the delays caused by over-crowded buses?

And of course the reason for the fare increase despite falling oil prices?

`Oh Look! Pigs! They can fly too!”