in Today. Did I miss an apology somewhere? Or was the Minister busy on facebook instead?
SINGAPORE - The entire 35 km stretch of the Circle Line came to a halt for almost an hour late last night because of an electrical fault that disrupted power supply, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded on the eve of a long weekend. Late night revellers and others trying to catch trains home were caught out by the outage, the third major disruption since last December's two train disruptions, which led to a Committee of Inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Of the five major disruptions, four involved operator SMRT. In last night's disruption, one train stalled on the tracks, with passengers forced to walk on tracks to get to the nearest station. Commuters, however, said the alternative measures which kicked in worked well this time, and the provision of alternative services went smoothly.
Last night's disruption, described as a major one by Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew, saw SMRT deploying buses and kicking in the rail management plan to get commuters to their destinations. SMRT, the Circle Line operator, was unable to put a number on the people affected in last night's disruption. The service disruption could continue, as SMRT engineers worked through the night to check on the Circle Line. Said SMRT Circle Line Vice-President Chia Chun Wah: "We have already been working with LTA and manufacturers to change out all the power cables but this will take time to complete. To speed up the change out, we are considering the possibility of closing down certain stretches during off-peak hours and running alternative services to ensure minimal disruption to commuters' journey."
In a statement, SMRT said train services were disrupted on both routes between Marina Bay and Paya Lebar, and between Paya Lebar and Dhoby Ghaut stations at 10.26pm. Around an hour later, at 11.35pm, services on both routes between Harbourfront and Paya Lebar stations resumed, but services remained disrupted along some stations. In a note posted on his Facebook page at 11.25pm, Mr Lui said the "major fault on the Circle Line", which affected service in both directions, was due to a train which stalled between Bayfront and Promenade stations. After a wait of about 20 minutes, passengers were led to the tracks and ushered to the station.
Last night's stoppage comes on the back of two other major disruptions after last December's outage, which led to the Committee of Inquiry hearing and resignation of former Chief Executive Saw Phaik Hwa. On April 18, services between eight Circle Line Stations were crippled for two-and-a-half hours which affected 18,000 commuters, while the North East Line was down for almost 12 hours on March 15.