Second day of ordeal for Singapore commuters as MRT services continue to be disrupted
SINGAPORE, Sept 26 — Singaporean commuters are facing MRT disruptions on the East-West Line for the second day today.
In an update on its social media, operator SMRT Corp said services between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations are still unavailable, and commuters were asked to find alternative ways of travel.
Shuttle train services have now been made available between Boon Lay and Jurong East stations, as well as between Queenstown and Buona Vista stations.
Yesterday, SMRT announced that its engineers are working through last night and today to restore service on the affected sector where point machines and the third rail have been damaged.
According to chairman Seah Moon Ming and group CEO Ngien Hoon Ping said in a brief statement yesterday:
"We would like to express our deepest apologies to all our commuters for the significant disruption caused by the power trip.
“The incident was the result of an unforeseen issue during the withdrawal of an old train, where a defective train axle box on one of our first-generation trains dropped and caused the wheels of a bogie to come off the running rail and hit track equipment, including the third rail and point machines, leading to the power fault.”
SMRT said yesterday a Kawasaki Heavy Industries train on the East West Line was returning to Ulu Pandan depot when it caused a power trip, resulting in a train near Clementi station stalling.