Following the whole-day suspension of Tuas West Extension train services yesterday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SMRT have decided that it’s best to isolate a segment — in between Gul Circle and Joo Koon MRT stations — for a whole month.
Engineers found that Wednesday’s train collision at Joo Koon MRT station was due to the faulty train transiting between the old signaling system on the East-West Line and the new system on the Tuas West Extension. As such, the suspension of train services will be required to allow engineers to carry out further checks.
For now until Sunday, the whole stretch of the Tuas West Extension won’t have any trains running. But from Monday onwards, only MRT services between Gul Circle and Joo Koon will be affected. Bridging bus services will be available for commuters.
New cases
The number of people injured from the train collision, however, seems to be increasing each day. Initially reported to be 25 casualties on Wednesday, the tally went up to 29 yesterday — and now it’s 36, according to a new update. Yesterday saw new cases at the National University Hospital and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, noted LTA in a statement, but most of them have been discharged.
It’s unclear if SMRT will be covering the medical bills of those injured in the crash.
