Adding to the jitters of school kids facing their first Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) paper today is the early morning train delays along the East West Line.
This time, however, SMRT decided to actually alert commuters of the disruption in train services, after failing to do so the last couple of times. As early as 5:53am, the transport operator warned of a track point fault that would add half an hour to train travel time between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations. It was quick to state that the fault was not connected to the re-signalling project.
[EWL]:Due to track point fault,pls expect 30mins delay train travel time btwn TanahMerah & PasirRis.(Not linked to new signalling project).
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) September 27, 2017
Free bus services were provided between those two MRT stations, before the train delays started to hit at Tampines too.
[EWL] UPDATE: Train svcs has resumed. Pls add 20mins travel time btwn #Tampines and #PasirRis due to track point fault.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) September 27, 2017
It was only around 8:37am that SMRT announced the all-clear, nearly three hours since the issues started.
[EWL] CLEARED: Train svcs btwn #TanahMerah and #PasirRis have resumed. Free regular bus & free bridging bus svcs have ended.
— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) September 28, 2017
Students were due for their English Language and Foundation English exams at 8:15am — so you know the kids were forced to be running late. But the Ministry of Education assured that PSLE candidates affected by the train service disruptions would still be able to sit for the full duration of their paper.
Nonetheless, the damage was probably done — instead of having time to calm their nerves before their exam, students would have to rush into doing their papers all flustered.
Really pity the kids affected by the mrt breakdown. They are stressed as it is cos of PSLE. Being late just makes it way worse.
— weeteck (@weeteck) September 28, 2017
