Commuters face delays after signalling fault on North-East Line

SINGAPORE — Rush hour commuters faced a longer journey home on Tuesday (Nov 15) evening after a signalling fault delayed train services on the North-East Line in the southbound direction towards HarbourFront. The fault happened between Boon Keng and Potong Pasir stations.

In a tweet at 6.37pm, train operator SBS Transit alerted commuters to add an extra 10 minutes to their train journey.

Later, at 6.53pm, SBS Transit said that an additional 20 minutes of travelling time may be expected by commuters.

At 7.40pm, it said that free regular bus services were available at designated stops along the North-East Line.

In subsequent tweets, the train operator told commuters to take different routes to continue with their journey.

“You may wish to use other MRT lines if you are at HarbourFront, Outram Park, Chinatown, Dhoby Ghaut, Little India or Serangoon (stations),” it said.

SBS Transit also said that commuters may approach its staff members for assistance.

On the Tata SMRT Facebook group — a community which regularly posts updates on train breakdowns or bus disruptions in Singapore — a commenter said that there was hardly any space to walk on the platform after commuters came down from the escalator.

In a tweet at 9.05pm, SBS Transit said that the train service has resumed since 8.52pm while the free regular bus services have ceased.

In response to TODAY’s queries, Ms Grace Wu, the vice-president (special grade) of customer experience and communications at SBS Transit, said that the train services on the North-East Line had operated at longer frequencies on Tuesday evening for about 2.5 hours due to a signalling fault on the tracks at Potong Pasir station.

As a result, Ms Wu said that the trains had to be manually driven at a much slower speed as they travelled from Potong Pasir to Boon Keng stations.

“This initially added an extra 10 minutes to travel time but it later increased to 20 minutes due to the slow travelling speed at the affected sector,” she said.

Ms Wu added, however, that free bus rides were made available at designated bus stops near the affected stations while commuters were also advised to take alternative MRT lines to get to their destinations.

Train services resumed their normal schedules at 8.52pm, Ms Wu said, as engineers carried out interim repair works on the damaged signalling cable.

“They will continue full repair works during engineering hours tonight,” she said.

“We apologise to affected commuters for the inconvenience caused. Meanwhile, we are investigating the incident."