Train delay on Circle Line this morning due to ‘power fault’: SMRT

SINGAPORE — Train services on the Circle Line towards Harbour Front were delayed this morning (Dec 23) due to a “power fault”, said SMRT, while several commuters stuck in a train at Buona Vista MRT station said they saw smoke in the train cabin during the disruption.

According to SMRT, a power trip had occurred at 9.05am between Holland Village and Harbourfront at both bounds. "The power trip was caused by a train travelling between Holland Villlage towards Buona Vista, which had stalled," said Ms Margaret Teo, Head, Corporate Marketing & Communications at SMRT. 

The stalled train was manually driven to Buona Vista, and announcement were made at the affected stations. Power was progressively restored and completed at 9.23am, and train services towards Harbourfront resumed at 9.27am, she said. "To ease congestion, trains travelling towards Harbourfront were turned around at Caldecott station towards the city area. Investigations are being conducted. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to commuters," said Ms Teo.

SMRT had notified commuters of the disruption on social media, with its first post on Twitter at 9.17am. Ten minutes later, SMRT tweeted again that the fault had been cleared but longer travelling time from Serangoon towards HarbourFront is expected as trains and platforms were crowded. At 10.02am, SMRT tweeted that train services had returned to normal.

During the delay, several netizens said on social media that they were stuck in a train at Buona Vista MRT station for around 10 minutes. They claimed that smoke had entered the cabin during this period.

“Stuck in circle line towards One-North after Buona Vista Stn. some electrical failure and ppl are panicking — smoke in cabin,” said @farouky on Twitter. He later sent a tweet to SMRT about smoke in the cabin.

Mr Riwut Libinuko tweeted that there was “a little smoke” in the cabin, and said that there was no response through the emergency button.

Others complained about the long wait at the station.

An SMRT spokesperson said that he was checking on the issue of smoke in the cabin with the operations side.