Transport Minister calls for probe into cause of train disruption
SINGAPORE — Stressing the need to get to the bottom of the cause of today’s (July 7) massive breakdown, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said he was “extremely concerned” with the disruption that had crippled both the North-South and East-West lines at the same time.
SINGAPORE — Stressing the need to get to the bottom of the cause of today’s (July 7) massive breakdown, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said he was “extremely concerned” with the disruption that had crippled both the North-South and East-West lines at the same time.
On his Facebook page, he wrote last night that it was “too early to conclude definitively” on what could have caused the incident, which he noted was the first time that both lines had been crippled simultaneously.
“I am sorry that so many commuters experienced massive disruptions to their journeys during the evening peak hours ... I have told SMRT and LTA to work through the night to fully recover train services and ensure that services run properly tomorrow,” he said.
The outage spanning about three hours was possibly caused by a faulty train that had tripped power, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which issued three updates on the situation last night through statements to the media, and on its Facebook and Twitter pages.
It added that it would “comb through the system through the night to see if there could be other faulty trains or other causes”.
The LTA said it had sent its engineers to help SMRT with its recovery efforts and would be working with the public transport operator to ensure services run properly today. A full investigation into the incident will be carried out, it added.
Soon after the shutdown, the LTA said free bus-bridging services had been activated. These services were later beefed up, and eventually all available buses were activated across the island, it said.
LTA said its chief executive Chew Men Leong had also gone to the Land Transport Operations Centre to lead recovery efforts, while officers from the statutory board had been deployed to the ground to facilitate bus operations.
Separately, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing called on affected commuters to “pull together”.
“SMRT staff are doing their best to assist affected passengers and more are working behind the scenes to bring the system back up again.
“Other transport workers are stepping up to bring people home as soon as they can. Thank you for working with a positive attitude,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Mr Chan also highlighted the acts of kindness by some car owners, who had offered on social media to pick up those who needed a ride home.