Defective trains cause two-hour disruption on North South Line

SINGAPORE — Commuters were frustrated last night by a two-hour breakdown in MRT train services between the Marina Bay and Newton stations.

The disruption, which affected services in both directions at seven stations on the North South Line, was due to two defective trains that were unable to depart from Somerset station.

SMRT said the incident happened at about 8.40pm. “Engineers were immediately deployed on site while free bus services and bus bridging were made available,” it added.

The defective trains were recovered at about 10.30pm. Services resumed about 10 minutes later.

Apologising for the inconvenience caused to commuters, SMRT said it was investigating the incident.

This was the third MRT breakdown in the past seven weeks. On Aug 8, a Circle Line train stalled between Tai Seng and Bartley stations, causing an hour-long disruption. About two weeks later, train services between Punggol and Sengkang stations were disrupted for nine hours, in what was the longest breakdown on the North East Line — which is operated by SBS Transit — since the record 12-hour delay in March 2012.