Commuters travelling on Singapore Metro Rail Transit's (SMRT) North-South Line (NSL) and East-West Line (EWL) were delayed in reaching their destinations as there were reports of track circuit fault on Tuesday. SMRT has even apologised for the inconvenience caused to the passengers.
In a statement, SMRT said that the track circuit faults resulted in trains having to travel at a slower speed for commuter safety.
Patrick Nathan, vice president for Corporate Information and Communications of SMRT, said, “In the new signalling system that is currently being tested, the ageing track circuits will be replaced with a more advanced system that is more reliable as it is built with multiple redundancies for greater reliability. After we renew the signalling system, faulty track circuits will no longer cause prolonged delays for commuters. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to affected passengers.”
SMRT was alerting the passengers about the delay throughout the day through its Twitter account. Initially, it posted about a 10-minute delay due to a track fault on the NSL, between Bishan and Khatib stations towards the Jurong East direction, at 7.19am.
Similarly, at 8.35am, it tweeted that commuters on the EWL would also be expecting an additional 10 minutes' travel time from the Paya Lebar to Simei stations towards Pasir Ris due to a track fault.
In later updates, SMRT said that the delays were due to track faults at Khatib on the NSL and Simei on the EWL.
As of about 9.40am, SMRT estimated the additional travel time expected for commuters on the NSL and EWL was 20 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively.
Finally, passengers heaved a sigh of relief when SMRT said at 12.41pm that train services from Bishan to Khatib had resumed.