SINGAPORE - Facing the media for the first time since SMRT experienced one of its worst rail disruptions to date, SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa today apologised to the 127,000 commuters who were affected by the incident yesterday.

On public calls for her and other senior management to resign, Ms Saw said that while she would consider resigning if necessary, she would reserve her opinion on the matter for the time being.

Saying she was "very, very sorry" for the five-hour disruption, Ms Saw said that SMRT had worked very hard to resolve and mitigate the issue, but the incident was extremely complex. However, that was no excuse and she acknowledged SMRT needed to improve on the way it communicated the information to the public, as well as its crowd management measures.

She also stressed that yesterday's incident on the North South line was "completely" unrelated to Wednesday's disruption on the Circle line, and that SMRT has stepped up maintenance schedules even as it has increased its network and operations.

On yesterday's disruption, Ms Saw said that while the issue was resolved by around 9pm, the staff patrolled the entire affected section again to ensure the system was fault-free. "We had to ensure it was truly safe," said Ms Saw, who acknowledged that SMRT will have to do better if such situations occurred again.