Commuters travelling on the SMRT trains had a harrowing time today following separate track circuit and power faults on the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL). Train services between the Queenstown and Bugis station were shut down for 30 minutes for ‘urgent repairs’ which added to the woes of the commuters.
The train services between the stations, in both the directions, were suspended at 11.30am. However, during noon, SMRT announced that services between the Queenstown and Bugis stations were progressively returning to normal’.
The suspension of trains was taken to allow engineers to remove a loose panel next to the tracks in the tunnel near Tiong Bahru MRT station, which caused the rail network to experience intermittent traction power trips, the rail operator said.
"As engineers require track access to remove the panel, traction power needs to be turned off for safety. As such, there will be no train service between Queenstown and Bugis MRT stations in both directions on the East-West Line from 11.30am," SMRT said in a Facebook post. "We are very sorry for the inconvenience."
In addition to this, commuters travelling to work faced delays caused by an intermittent power fault on the NSEWL, as well as a track circuit fault at the Commonwealth station. The track circuit fault was resolved about two hours after it was first reported at 8.51am.
SMRT first reported the power fault at 7.26am, warning commuters to expect the stations to be crowded. About four hours later, at 11.15am, the train operator said it had to shut services between the Queenstown and Bugis stations to remove the loose panel causing power trips on the network.
Commuters had to face similar problems on July 12 due to a power fault last causing blackouts at several stations and halted train services on the NSEWL. SMRT later attributed the July 12 service disruption to a traction power trip.