Power outage plunges Toa Payoh bus interchange into darkness

SINGAPORE — Retailers, shoppers and commuters at Toa Payoh bus interchange were caught in a hot, stuffy environment yesterday afternoon — not because of the weather but a power outage that affected the air-conditioning and public lighting, which left people in the dark for about an hour.

Ms Tammy Tan, senior vice-president of corporate communications with public bus operator SBS Transit, told TODAY that the power outage occurred at about 3pm.

“The engineers were activated and immediately started work on restoring the power supply. Bus services were unaffected by the blackout and continued to operate as scheduled,” she said.

Patrols by SBS Transit staff members were stepped up to help commuters, and lighting was restored by about 4pm. The company is investigating the cause of the power trip, Ms Tan said.

Retailers were affected to varying degrees by the blackout at the interchange.

A 39-year-old owner of a convenience store, who gave her name only as Ms Alma, said that the power outage affected the lighting, cash register and drinks chiller in her shop.

“I had to collect money and manually record the accounts on paper since the cash register could not be used, but the drinks in the fridge remained cold during that time.”

A 27-year-old gift shop owner who gave her name as Ms Ng said: “It was so dark in the shop and we had to help customers find the products that they wanted to buy.”

Mr Koh Zhen Hui, 30, a financial services consultant at an insurance agency, was at a booth in an event space there and found it hard to engage with potential clients.

“It was very dark and warm, and the fans weren’t working. We use iPads, so our (computer) equipment was not affected by the blackout. I think the shops selling food opposite us would have felt it worse.”

Employees at a takeaway dim-sum stall and a cafeteria in the interchange told TODAY that they were unable to operate their business during the hour-long blackout since they needed electrical power for much of their operations.

While the central air-conditioning in the public areas was restored at around 4pm, a few retailers complained that air-conditioning within their shops was still not functioning. Ms Ng, who was one of them, said: “Customers don’t like shopping in a hot environment. This is the first time a blackout has happened in my five years of running this shop. I am not sure if the management will compensate us for the loss in business.”