Whither SMRT?

A south bound train experienced an electrical failure as a result of a lightning strike somewhere in around Kranji station area during this morning’s (29 Sep) thunderstorm.  The affected train stalled at Woodlands MRT station at about 0640 hr and was later pushed back to the depot by another empty train.

The incident caused an approximate delay of 35 minutes, affecting approximately 3,500 passengers.  Luckily today is Sunday, else much more passengers would be affected.

Is this a bad omen for SMRT?

Our MRT was truly efficient and was the pride of Singapore just 10 years ago.  When we were in a rush, we took MRT.  Nowadays, when we are in a rush, we have to avoid MRT.  MRT service is so unreliable that it even overloads the bus and the taxi services.

How did MRT ended up in such pathetic state in the present day?  Is it due to POOR planning of over populating our small nation or is it due to POOR maintenance and management of our MRT system?

I was a SMRT shareholder since its IPO.  SMRT was a dividend darling in the past, with stable and growing earnings providing shareholders with a steady stream of dividends to look forward to.  It was a defensive stock and it didn't go down too much even during the stock market crash.

However, the POOR management and short-sightedness in neglecting maintenance had caught up with SMRT and those past days of stability has come to an end. Dividend was cut so drastically that the yield becomes just above 1%, which is not much better than bank fixed deposit interest rate.

SMRT shareholders are currently on a south bound train as we see SMRT share price keeps heading south or downwards. I had jumped off SMRT when it was at $1.615 and counted myself lucky for about $2,000 profit.