Services on North-South, East-West Lines may be 'limited' on Wed morning, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Services on North-South, East-West Lines may be 'limited' on Wed morning

This article is more than 12 months old

Planning to take the North-South or East-West Line trains to work on Wednesday morning?

SMRT Corporation is advising commuters to make alternative travel plans.

The company said on late Tuesday (July 7) that it may run "limited services" the next morning and that free bus services will continue during that period.

It added that fare gates at all stations are open until full train services resume.

SMRT said it detected multiple power trips on both lines on Tuesday from 6pm onwards.

"Our engineers initially managed to reset these power trips," said SMRT Trains managing director Lee Ling Wee. "But as we tried to identify the cause of the power fault, the frequency and impact of power trips intensified."

Train services were suspended at 7.15pm "for safety reasons in order to isolate the cause of the network-wide power trips", he said.

Services on the East-West Line resumed at 9.20pm, while services on the North-South Line resumed at 10.35pm.

Possible reason for the MRT breakdown

Mr Lee said: "Our preliminary assessment points to a possible power-related equipment failure at substations or along the track, or the undercarriage of a potential defective train which we are investigating tonight. But we are not ruling out other possibilities."

Mr Desmond Kuek, President and Group CEO, SMRT Corporation, said: "SMRT and LTA engineers are working round the clock to conduct tests, and sections of the network are being isolated to pin point the fault. 

"While it is still early to conclude the cause of the fault, we are doing our utmost to recover the system with the view to resume full train services as soon as possible. We deeply apologise for the inconvenience caused to all our commuters."

MRT breakdownNorth-South LineEast-West LineTRAINSTransport