SINGAPORE – Commuters on the North-South Line (NSL) faced rush hour congestion as the south-bound train service was crippled for nearly half an hour early on Tuesday morning, barely 12 hours after train services along three MRT lines and one LRT line suffered a power dip which caused an unprecedented breakdown.
Rail operator SMRT, which runs the NSL, said in a tweet at 6.31am that train services were disrupted between Kranji and Woodlands stations and advised commuters to seek alternative transport.
[NSL]: No train service from #Kranji to #Woodlands towards MarinaBay. Please seek alternative transport.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) April 25, 2016
In subsequent tweets, it attributed that the disruption to a traction power fault and said that free public and shuttle buses were available between Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands stations.
[NSL] UPDATE: Due to traction power fault, there is no train service from Kranji to Woodlands station towards MarinaBay.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) April 25, 2016
[NSL]UPDATE: Free public & shuttle buses are now available at affected stations between #ChoaChuKang and #Woodlands station.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) April 25, 2016
Services were resumed about 18 minutes later at 6.49am, according to SMRT.
[NSL] CLEARED: Train service from #Kranji to #Woodlands towards #MarinaBay has resumed.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) April 25, 2016
In a Facebook post at about 9.30am, SMRT apologised for the disruption and said that it is investigating the cause to determine if it is related to Monday (April 25) night’s power fault.
On Monday, more than 20 MRT stations were affected by train service disruptions which affected the NSL, East-West Line, Circle Line and Bukit Panjang LRT.
SMRT explained the disruptions to be due to a “traction power fault” which had been “traced to a power dip at the Buona Vista power intake station”.
Stomp, The Straits Times, Wesley Sng
sujint@sph.com.sg
