MRT service between Woodlands North and Bayshore resumes after two-hour delay
Sherlyn Sim for The Straits Times
Train service between Woodlands North and Bayshore stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) has resumed after a two-hour-long disruption on the morning of Sept 17, SMRT said.
The transport operator said in a post at 8.54am that train service on the 27-station stretch has resumed. Free regular bus and bridging bus services have ended.
When The Straits Times arrived at Woodlands station at about 9am, the train service was running normally, with trains coming at intervals of six minutes.
In an earlier post at 8.38am, SMRT said that train service was resuming progressively to normalcy and that free regular and bridging buses services were still available.
That came eight minutes after it said there was no train service at the affected stations to facilitate "train service recovery" due to a signal fault.
SMRT Trains president Lam Sheau Kai said in a Facebook post at 9am that the train service was suspended for about 30 minutes to reset the system. He apologised for the inconvenience caused to commuters.
In an earlier post on X and Facebook at 7.29am, SMRT urged commuters to allow for an additional 15 minutes of travelling time between Woodlands North and Bayshore stations, in both directions.
In an update at 7.55am, SMRT said free regular bus services between the affected stations were available.
SMRT added in an update at 8.14am that its engineers were working to recover train services and urged commuters heading towards the city centre to take the North-South Line, Circle Line or Downtown Line.
A commuter who wanted to be known only as Ms Kok, said she was heading from Woodlands South to Caldecott at around 7.10am when the train she was in stopped between the Woodlands South and Springleaf stations for about an hour.
She told ST that she was worried as she was rushing to reach her workplace by 8am, and that it was very hot inside the packed train.
"Everyone was pissed because there was a train announcement for a delay of 15 minutes but the train was not moving to any stops for a much longer time" said the 32-year-old human resource executive.
The train she was in moved one stop to Springleaf station by 8.15am where she was able to catch a free regular bus to work.
This is the second train disruption in less than 12 hours, after service for six stations on the East-West Line was affected late on the night of Sept 16 due to a fault in the power supply system.
With additional reporting by Koh Ming Lun
