So the Downtown Line 3’s Open House just happened over the weekend. To most of us, it was just another event catering to families, train otakus, and people who love free train rides. But thanks to an unexpected (or expected, depending on your views of SBS Transit and SMRT) train breakdown, Sunday’s open house may go down in history as the most widely-mocked one hosted by Singapore’s public transport operators.
It was a train fault near Hillview MRT that affected services and dampened spirits on the Downtown Line, on a day that was supposed to celebrate the new stretch of MRT network consisting of 16 stations. Commuters who came to excitedly preview stations like Fort Canning and Expo on the 21km-long Downtown Line 3 found themselves in a now-familiar situation — a good old train breakdown.
According to The Straits Times, train services were suspended between Bukit Panjang and Beauty World stations for at least 40 minutes from 12:40pm. Although these stations are on Downtown Line 2, the disruption also affected services on the new line, which is set to officially open this Saturday.
Downtown Line operator SBS Transit announced the train fault at 1:05pm on Twitter and promptly arranged for free bus shuttles at affected stations, reported TODAY.
Even though the delay did not last long and the 360,000 people who turned up for the festivities eventually got to enjoy their free rides at the end of the day, netizens still expressed cynicism and zero surprizes at the train disruption.
