Perhaps Minister of Transport Khaw Boon Wan should stop celebrating milestones when it comes to our trains. In an ironic twist of events, train services from Marina South Pier to Newton on the North-South Line came to a halt for an hour last week, just a few days after Khaw announced the achievement of 100 disruption-free days on the line.
And yesterday, things escalated with a power fault at Buona Vista power intake station, affecting over 30 stations on three MRT lines and Bukit Panjang LRT. The incident occurred during peak hour at 7.53pm, causing the stations to lose power and rely on emergency lighting. Several stops from Buona Vista to Joo Koon on the East-West Line, Jurong East to Kranji on the North-South Line and Caldecott to HarbourFront on the Circle Line also experienced stalled escalators and no air-conditioning.
Free bus services were quickly activated (because by now SMRT knows what to do), and services on the NSL and EWL resumed at 8.23pm, followed by the Circle Line at 8.48pm and Bukit Panjang LRT at 9.47pm.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, less than 12 hours later, a disruption struck again. This morning, services on NSL between Kranji and Woodlands stations towards Marina Bay were halted for about 20 minutes. SMRT notified the public with a tweet at 6.31am, asking commuters to use alternative forms of transportation. Although services resumed by 6.49am, several trains and stations were already congested, and things only went back to normal around 7.30am.
SMRT has apologised for both incidents over the last two days, claiming that overnight checks during engineering hours will be carried out, especially on the Buona Vista power intake station. Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the two rush hour power faults are related.
Guess Khaw will have to reset the clock today. Again.
