The Land Transport Authority (LTA) held the inaugural Public Transport Safety and Security Awards (PTSSA) Day today to recognise the industry for their efforts in ensuring safety and security in our public transport. This year’s awards ceremony was held at the NTUC Auditorium and graced by Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Mr Chee Hong Tat.

2.    With millions of journeys made on public transport daily, operational and workplace safety is critical to achieving our goal of safe and reliable rides. At the same time, given the open and accessible nature of public transport, coupled with the high concentration of commuters, it is essential that public transport workers remain vigilant and alert to potential security threats. The PTSSA acknowledges the efforts of our public transport operators and workers in helping to achieve these important outcomes.

3.   There are two main categories of awards under the PTSSA – the Operator category and the Public Transport (PT) Worker category. The Operator category recognises rail, bus and Point-to-Point (P2P) operators with the best safety records and demonstration of strong commitment to ensuring commuter and workplace safety.

4.   The PT Worker category comprises Special Commendation and Star Awards. The Special Commendation Award recognises public transport workers for their timely actions and quick thinking in preventing a potential safety or security incident. For example, among the eight recipients of the Special Commendation Award this year were individuals who took swift and decisive action in preventing the spread of a fire in the workplace as well as detecting a prohibited item onboard a bus.

5.    Star Awards are given out to individual PT workers as well as teams for their ground-up efforts and projects to help create a safer and more secure workplace environment. Recipients of the 12 Star Awards this year initiated a series of projects including the development of new tools, systems, and processes to help improve workplace and operational safety and security. Please refer to the Annex for the full list of PTSSA winners.

6.   At the PTSSA ceremony, SMS Chee also presented certificates to more than 100 Safety Champions, a tripartite ground-up initiative, to recognise their efforts in promoting workplace safety and security.

7.   “A strong safety culture must underpin all of our work, and the vigilance and contributions of our public transport colleagues on the ground to pre-empting safety issues are key. We are happy to initiate this Public Transport Safety and Security Awards to recognise and commend the best among them for helping to ensure a safe and secure public transport system for all our commuters”, says Mr Ng Lang, Chief Executive of LTA.