SMRT announced on Thursday that the likely cause of the MRT lines disruption on July 7 is the insulation of the third rail, Channel NewsAsia reports.
“Intensive, round-the-clock investigations and re-enactments of the incident point to the likelihood that the insulation of the third rail could have affected the supply of traction power which in turn, led to the tripping of the Touch Voltage Protection Relay among multiple stretches of the NSEWL,” SMRT said.
Following one of the worst train disruptions in Singapore history, SMRT said it has “spared no effort” to investigate the cause of it. Over nine days, it conducted an extensive inspection of 200km of train tracks on both bounds of the NSEWL, and all 67 power substations that support the lines. It has also checked 115 MRT trains that were used on Jul 7 and an additional 26 trains parked at depots.
SMRT has also approached international operators, including London Underground, for a rail operator’s views on its preliminary assessment of the incident, while the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has engaged a team of independent experts from Sweden and Japan to inspect the power supply infrastructure and railway trackside installations.
SMRT said it will work with LTA to segment the network of cables that supply power to the NSEWL to add resilience to the rail network. It is also refreshing trackside components.
Our train operator should’ve invested the same amount of effort to ensure this didn’t happen in the first place.
Photo: LTA Facebook page
