New year, new grumbles. Commuters on the North-South Line were late for their appointments this morning when a train fault hit Marsiling MRT station around 8am.
SMRT alerted commuters to add half an hour to their travel time from Woodlands to Yew Tee MRT stations towards Jurong East. This was refuted by commuters who tweeted out that the train fault was actually affecting both directions — even those heading towards Marina Bay were also delayed.
Both sides are affected. Please update your tweet. I’m taking the train towards Marina Bay and your misrepresentation will cause my boss to question my story pic.twitter.com/ta2lYwYRr6
— Hadi Abdul (@hadi_abd92) January 22, 2019
Train been affected towards to Marina Bay. Everyone been chase down pic.twitter.com/rV0WVmfSdj
— tang jiahui jackson (@dorabase92) January 22, 2019
I can’t get the logic. Trains fault towards jurong east and yet both side also affected? pic.twitter.com/Hl0gsv6Ahe
— tang jiahui jackson (@dorabase92) January 22, 2019
Others noted that the train fault affected commuters beyond just Woodlands and Yew Tee, with one individual stating that he had been waiting for the train to depart Sembawang MRT Station for 40 minutes.
Woodlands to YewTee only ?
I have been standing in the train at Sembawang since last 40 minutes..— Deepak (@Swt0boy) January 22, 2019
Eh u dont cb. Khatib also affected why u no post? Platform full of people, incoming train full of people. Why u always lying?
— Asurun (@SimYewTeck) January 22, 2019
Free bus services were launched, but only between Woodlands and Yew Tee. Around 8:30am, SMRT reduced the additional train traveling time to 15 minutes, and then 10 minutes at 8:52am.
[NSL] UPDATE: Free regular bus svcs btwn #Woodlands and #YewTee. Our station staff will assist.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) January 22, 2019
[NSL UPDATE]: Due to a train fault, pls add 15mins train travel time from #Woodlands to #YewTee towards #JurongEast.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) January 22, 2019
[NSL]: Due to an earlier train fault, pls add 10mins train travel time from #Woodlands to #YewTee towards #JurongEast. Free regular bus svcs btwn #Woodlands and #YewTee are still available.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) January 22, 2019
Commuters started taking issue with how SMRT did not publicly announce that the trains heading in the direction of Marina Bay were also delayed.
So you never acknowledged the Marina Bay line delay till the end. Looks like a change in management hasn’t improved the reliability of information. This page only exists to downplay the situation.
— Hadi Abdul (@hadi_abd92) January 22, 2019
Train towards Marina Bay is also affected by the delay please. 😒
— Allie (@aleeshakhoo) January 22, 2019
Typically PR failure. Trying to soften the impact of breakdown by saying it affects x to x station but in fact the whole line towards x direction is affected due to upstream delay. Not sure which target audiences smrt is trying to lie to, but to commuters, we have eyes to see…
— Marcus Phang (@PhangMarcus) January 22, 2019
Both sides are affected.. Train towards Jurong East is moving but train towards Marina Bay is not even here. 😥
— S∆NDI ˟ (@Sanditanyq) January 22, 2019
After the train fault was cleared, it was only at 9:08am that SMRT confirmed that train services have resumed normally. Still no acknowledgment that the train fault affected the southbound services as well.
[NSL] UPDATE: Fault cleared, train svcs are progressively being restored. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) January 22, 2019
[NSL] CLEARED: Train svc from #Woodlands to #YewTee has resumed. Free regular bus svcs have ended.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) January 22, 2019
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