SMRT Circle Line train services resume

SINGAPORE: SMRT said full train services on the Circle Line resumed on Friday morning after a faulty power cable disrupted service on Thursday night.

The first train departed from HarbourFront Station at 5.51am, while the first train from Dhoby Ghaut Station left as scheduled at about 6am.

Some commuters Channel NewsAsia spoke to said they did not know about the train disruption on Thursday night.

But those who said they knew about the disruption, said they assumed train services would be up when they made their journey on Friday morning.

Cliff Tan said: "It’s a lot of inconvenience for everybody, especially last night, at 11 plus, everyone was heading home."

Kelvin Ng said: "It’s not the first time right, so I’m not really surprised that the Circle Line has broken down."

Johnny Lo said: "It’s never fun, but if it happens, it happens. I mean stuff breaks down all the time. Of course, there are ways they can make sure it gets maintained better, but if it doesn’t then there’s only so much we can do about it."

On Thursday night, about 100 commuters were on a train that stalled in the tunnel between Promenade and Bayfront Stations.

Commuters had to detrain and walk through the tunnel to the nearby Bayfront Station.

Bus bridging services and the free boarding of regular bus services were activated between HarbourFront and Dhoby Ghaut Stations.

Partial train services were restored between HarbourFront and Paya Lebar at about 11.20pm on Thursday.

But SMRT decided to keep train services between Stadium and Dhoby Ghaut Stations, and Stadium and Marina Bay Stations closed for further checks.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said preliminary investigations found that Thursday night’s service disruptions were due to a power trip at Promenade Station that affected the entire Circle Line.

The localised power trip was likely due to a faulty cable which has been isolated.

LTA and train operator SMRT are monitoring the situation closely.

LTA’s Crisis Management Team, led by Chief Executive Chew Hock Yong, was at the Land Transport Operations Centre to monitor and coordinate the incident management and service recovery efforts.

LTA monitored the public bus network, and liaised with SMRT and SBS Transit to augment bus services serving the affected areas, while LTA engineers were sent to the incident site to work with SMRT engineers on the repair and recovery efforts.

About 50 LTA officers were also deployed to assist SMRT on service recovery, crowd control and traffic management.

LTA said it coordinated closely with SMRT on the various efforts, and it will work with SMRT to investigate the cause of the incident.

The breakdown happened on the eve of a public holiday, and SMRT had originally intended to offer extended services.

SMRT has apologised for the inconvenience.

— CNA/ck