Signalling issues plague Circle Line for 3rd day, frustrating commuters

SINGAPORE — For the third straight day, “intermittent signalling issues” on the Circle Line caused delays of five to 10 minutes on Wednesday (Aug 31), while commuters were also warned to hold on to handrails in anticipation of intermittent braking at around lunchtime.

The disrupted service annoyed commuters, with Twitter user fel saying sarcastically: “Circle Line delay for so long but SMRT is like ‘train will be slightly delayed’.”

Another user, Adam Satria Premanon said: “Three freaking days and still can’t resolve it! How useless n pathetic can a management be!?”

Some others posted photos of the crowds swelling at the stations, expressing disbelief at the estimates given by the train operator.

SMRT, which operates the Circle Line, tweeted at 6.47am that it was still experiencing signalling issues. It said commuters should expect an additional three to five minutes of travelling time.

At 8.40am, it revised the additional travelling time to 10 minutes in another tweet. 

Later in the morning, it said passengers could expect longer travelling times between Dhoby Ghaut and Paya Lebar, and Caldecott and HarbourFront.

On Monday, commuters experienced delays throughout the Circle Line, beginning from the morning rush hour until the end of day. 

The transport operator had said then that the delays were caused by intermittent signalling issues. Similar issues continued to plague the Circle Line on Tuesday evening during the rush hour, with delays of five to 10 minutes at the height of the disruption.

Asked about the delays, SMRT’s vice-president of corporate information and communications Patrick Nathan said the operator has been “carrying out tests and investigations” since Monday. 

Mr Nathan said: “Initial investigations point to possible signal interference in tunnels, causing loss of signal between the trains and stations, which our engineers are trying to confirm.”

He added: “While services continue to run, as a precautionary measure and to minimise delays, staff continue to be stationed on board all trains for quicker service recovery. More staff have also been deployed to stations to assist passengers.”

It is also working with the Land Transport Authority, along with contractor Alstom, to “rectify the fault as quickly as possible”.