Downtown Line 1 suffers second disruption in a week

SINGAPORE — The newly-opened Downtown Line 1 was crippled again last night, its second disruption since its opening last Sunday.

A power fault struck all six stations on the line — Chinatown, Telok Ayer, Downtown, Bayfront, Promenade and Bugis — at about 9pm yesterday, resulting in some 50 passengers on one train being detrained at Bayfront station, said SBS Transit Senior Vice-President for Corporate Communications Tammy Tan.

She said the power fault may have been caused by the activation of the detrainment door device.

“Based on CCTV footage on board our train ... we note that there were some children playing around the detrainment door area. A small girl appears to have accidentally activated the detrainment door device, which caused the emergency brakes to be automatically applied,” said Ms Tan.

“This resulted in a tripping of the power supply to the Line, which is a safety feature of the system. We are still investigating the incident.”

The operator did not answer queries on how many commuters in total had been affected.

Full service resumed more than an hour later, at 10.10pm, Ms Tan added.

The 15-minute disruption that marred its opening day, which was caused by a train fault, also occurred at Bayfront station.