From Runways to Railways: Navigating Singapore’s Transport Evolution

Combine aviation expertise, government leadership, and entrepreneurial flair—and you get a transport visionary who’s shaped Singapore’s mobility across air, land, and sea.

In this UITP Asia-Pacific spotlight interview, Alan Chan, the Chairman of Singapore’s Land Transport Authority reflects on a remarkable career that spans aviation, government, and corporate leadership. Trained as a Civil Aviation Engineer, his journey took him from managing airport operations to overseeing the nation’s entire transport system as Permanent Secretary—and later, leading the Land Transport Authority post-retirement.

His admiration for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, under whom he served as Principal Private Secretary, reveals a deep commitment to public service and nation-building. That same dedication drives his leadership style today: open, empowering, and grounded in trust.

To young professionals, his advice is clear — embrace versatility and lifelong learning. And when it comes to public transport, he’s tackling rising expectations with innovation, communication, and a steadfast focus on safety.

This is the story of a leader who’s helped keep Singapore moving—literally and figuratively.

I was trained as a Civil Aviation Engineer studying every aspect of airspace, airline and airport management. The principles can similarly be applied to the terrestrial and maritime transport system.

After serving National Service in the Airforce, I was appointed as an Airport Manager overseeing Ground Operations and Estate Management. All these had direct linkage to public and ground transportation.

Subsequently, I was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport. In this role, I was responsible for the smooth operation of my country’s land, sea and air transport system.

Following my retirement as the CEO of a Media and Property company, I was asked to chair the Land Transport Authority from 2017 to now. Hence, in various parts of my working life, I was involved in the Public Transport sector.

As the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990, Mr Lee Kuan Yew brought the nation from the Third World to the First in a short span of 30 years.  He oversaw major economic reforms, urban development and instituted policy promoting meritocracy, multi-racialism and anti-corruption. With this foundation, the GDP per capita of Singapore grew from US$500 in 1959 to US$92,932 in 2025.

I was privileged to be Mr Lee’s Principal Private Secretary from 1994 to 1997. My lasting impression of Mr Lee was that he ate, slept and dreamt about the betterment of Singapore. A man completely dedicated to the peace and prosperity of his country.

A 2017 Financial Times article entitled “Plan for five careers in your lifetime” sent a strong signal to young school leavers. This trend is happening due to increased career options, evolving skills, personal growth, job market dynamics and longer lifespan. This suggest that our young people should not over-specialise but take interest in a variety of subjects. As they progress in their career paths, they must continue to learn and study new topics.

To maintain the esprit de corps of my leadership team, I injected a lot of light-hearted moments to relieve tension. We are also involved in many social gatherings to break the wall between them. Information is widely shared so that the team is aware of the bigger objectives. Lastly, I also give a lot of leeway to the executives to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit in the projects.

Information and communication are key.

Unlike the past when a metro or bus is driven manually by a driver, we see increasing automation with driver-less metro and autonomous buses and taxis.  These are complex engineering systems comprising several sub systems working in tandem.

The metro is also a continuous system involving many stations and trains, one problem will snowball into the whole system.

As safety is of prime concern in the minds of the operator, the system will be stopped at the first sign of trouble, thus causing inconvenience to the commuters. But it is a price to pay for safety. This would require quick diagnoses and recovery.

Alternative transport mode would need to be offered to keep the commuter flow.