Morning rush hour signalling fault leaves commuters frustrated
Hundreds of commuters were affected when a signalling fault on the SMRT-operated North-South Line halted train services between Kranji and Bukit Gombak MRT stations yesterday.
As a result of the breakdown at 8am during the rush hour, affected commuters had to queue at the stations to catch the free bus services provided between Kranji and Jurong East MRT stations.
At 8.49am, SMRT Corporation posted on its Twitter that the signalling faults had been rectified and train services were progressively returning back to normal.
About two hours later, SMRT posted on its Facebook page, apologising to commuters.
"Staff were on site to assist commuters to take alternative transport," it added.
Though it took under one hour to rectify the fault, affected commuters voiced their frustration on social media.
Twitter user Scbattlemage said: "Was chased out of the (Choa Chu Kang) station, queued and finally got in the bus, then saw the update that the MRT has been rectified while being stuck in the bus. (SMRT) never learns (from) past disruptions."
A hospital frontline worker, who declined to be named, told The New Paper that it took her 21/2 hours to travel to her Jurong East workplace. It usually takes 20 minutes.
She said: "I (was supposed to) start work at 8.45am.
"The team at Kranji was not properly organised, nobody knew where we were walking or where the buses were. I don't blame the ground staff. They were as clueless as us."
She added that there were not enough buses to accommodate the large crowd.
A video posted by Twitter user Qairul Afzan at 8.20am shows more than 200 people exiting the trains on both platforms of Yew Tee MRT station.
Earlier this year, three power faults hit the North-South and Circle lines after a fire broke out at Raffles Place MRT station.
The power faults slowed services between Newton and Marina South Pier, lengthening travel times by 30 minutes.
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