SMRT says sorry after train fault disrupts service on Circle Line for nearly an hour
SMRT said sorry after a train fault disrupted service on the Circle Line for nearly one hour in the late afternoon on March 5.
On the same day, Minister of Transport Chee Hong Tat spoke in Parliament about the significant strides made in rail reliability in the past decade.
SMRT first posted about the disruption on social media at 4.07pm, advising commuters to add 30 minutes of travel time between Promenade and Serangoon stations in both directions.
Stomper Teo shared a photo of a similar announcement on the monitor on the train platform at Serangoon station.
Facebook user Charmaine Marie Lim commented on the SMRT page: "My 10-year-old daughter was on an affected train. She approached the control station at Bartley, but the control station she noticed was turning away people and not providing assistance.
"My daughter is 10. We spent the last hour and a half assisting her over the phone while having to work.
"It was heart-breaking to know help was not available for her."
SMRT replied: "We're sorry to learn of your daughter's experience at Bartley station. May we get your contact details via (online form) so that we can address this issue directly? In the meantime, we will notify the team for their internal review."
At 5.01pm, SMRT updated that train service had "resumed to normalcy".
Earlier that day, Transport Minister Chee said in Parliament: "Over the past decade, we have invested heavily and made significant strides in rail reliability."
He added that the Government intends to invest up to an additional $1 billion over the next five years to further strengthen Singapore's rail capabilities and scale up technology adoption.
"With the additional investments, LTA (Land Transport Authority) can better optimise the life cycle management of rail assets," said Mr Chee.
"LTA will determine, based on the condition of each asset, whether maintenance needs to be stepped up by our operators so that the asset can continue to run until the end of its service life, or whether the asset needs to be replaced early, or if it can have its service life extended.
"This will enable LTA and the operators to achieve high reliability standards, while keeping a tight control on maintenance and asset replacement costs, which will benefit commuters and taxpayers."
