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Passengers stranded on track at Sengkang after LRT hit by power fault

SINGAPORE – A loud boom, a stalled vehicle, and some 15 passengers of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) at Sengkang had to endure a rather inauspicious start to the Chinese New Year.

The LRT service disruption along the Sengkang West loop was caused by a power fault. TODAY File Photo

The LRT service disruption along the Sengkang West loop was caused by a power fault. TODAY File Photo

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SINGAPORE – A loud boom, a stalled vehicle, and some 15 passengers of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) at Sengkang had to endure a rather inauspicious start to the Chinese New Year.

The LRT services along the Sengkang West loop were disrupted on Friday (Feb 16) morning following a power fault.

The incident, which happened at around 11.10am on the first day of Chinese New Year, caused a Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) to stall as it approached Sengkang Town Centre station.

A "loud boom" was heard before the vehicle "stalled on the track", said operator SBS Transit. Smoke was reportedly coming out of the rear of the train.

Videos posted online showed the LRV passengers stranded in the middle of the track. They had to step out of the cabin and walked along the track toward the station.

"At the time of the incident, a loud noise was heard due to a dislodged power collector shoe on the LRV. This caused the LRV to stall immediately as a safety feature,” said SBS Transit’s senior vice-president for corporate communications, Tammy Tan.

"Our staff quickly attended to the situation and helped the 15 commuters on board to detrain safely so that they could get to the nearby (Sengkang Town Centre) station,” Ms Tan added.

“Another LRV was used to help push the defective LRT out of the line so that service on the Sengkang West Inner loop could resume.”

The LRT services resumed at around 1pm.

"We apologise to affected commuters for the inconvenience caused. Meanwhile, we are investigating the cause of the fault," added Ms Tan.

This incident came just days after the Government announced it will take over ownership of the trains, signalling systems and other operating assets of the North-East Line (NEL), and the Sengkang and Punggol LRT systems from SBS Transit.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it will acquire SBS Transit’s rail operating assets at net book value, which is estimated to be about S$28.8 million (S$30.8 million with Goods and Services Tax) as at March 31 this year.

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