A very unfortunate thing happened over the weekend — thousands of commuters were left stranded when the North-South Line (NSL) train services were disrupted for about 20 hours, in one of the worst cases to occur in Singapore since 2011. Even though free bus services were provided, bus stops were jammed with people, and the constant patter of rain across the island just made things worse.
It was the thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon that started it all — by flooding a portion of the train tunnel between Braddell and Bishan MRT stations, reported Channel NewsAsia. Services ground to a halt on practically half the NSL — 13 stations from Ang Mo Kio to Marina South Pier — for over three hours, then train services in both directions between Ang Mo Kio and Newton MRT stations were suspended for about 20 hours before things went back to normal at 1:50pm on Sunday.
Thankfully, the morning rush hour today was not affected.
Here’s a quick timeline of how it all went down (in case you were one of the lucky few unaffected by the disruption):
- Train services between Bishan and Toa Payoh MRT stations stopped at 5:33pm on Saturday after the tunnel between Braddell and Bishan flooded due to the downpour.
- SMRT tweeted about the track fault and was quick to dismiss any connection to the dastardly signalling system upgrade.
- Separately, a small fire on the trackside in the tunnel between Marina Bay and Raffles Place MRT stations was reported at 5:55pm. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted, but the flames died out by themselves.
- At 6:05pm, SMRT declared that train services between Ang Mo Kio and Marina South Pier were suspended in both directions.
- Train services between Newton and Marina South Pier resumed at 9:22pm, but those planning to go from Newton to Ang Mo Kio in either direction would have to seek alternative transport options, as SMRT’s engineers conducted network-wide tunnel checks through the night.
- It was only on Sunday at 1:50pm that SMRT finally gave the green light for services between those stations to be restored — after teams from the SCDF, Land Transport Authority (LTA), PUB and SMRT worked tirelessly overnight to clear the water from the tunnels.
In the wake of the incident, the LTA issued a statement on Sunday evening explaining that it was a water pumping system malfunction that resulted in the flooding of the tunnel between Bishan and Braddell stations and the subsequent suspension of services on the NSL.
According to the authority, preliminary investigations showed that the water seeped into the tunnels through a “portal opening” near Bishan MRT station where tracks that are above ground descend underground.
“Under normal circumstances, rainwater runoff accumulated in the adjacent storm water sump pit would have been siphoned off by a system of pumps,” LTA said. “Yesterday, the water pumping system malfunctioned, resulting in rainwater overflowing from the storm water sump pit into the tunnel opening and accumulating at the lowest point of the tunnel, between Bishan and Braddell stations.”
SMRT immediately deactivated the trackside power supply, and the pump system has since been repaired, LTA added. Detailed investigations are ongoing.
But even though train services have gone back to normal this week, commuters have been expressing worry over the problem potentially recurring during morning and evening rush hours — especially since the Meteorological Service Singapore has forecast thundery showers for the first two weeks of October.
In light of all this, transport experts have called for a higher frequency of checks on the pumping and underground drainage systems — especially during rainy seasons, reported The Straits Times. They also suggested that SMRT consider installing back-up pumping systems, to prevent a repeat of such a massive disruption.
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