We apologise to all who were inconvenienced by disruptions: SMRT CEO
Speaking at a joint press conference with LTA CEO Chew Men Leong, SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek apologised to commuters affected by Tuesday's disruption and promised to investigate the cause of the breakdown.
SINGAPORE: The Chief Executive Officers of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and train operator SMRT were at a press conference on Wednesday morning (Jul 8) to give more details on what caused the 3.5-hour disruption crippled the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL).
Refresh this page for updates from the press conference.
At the press conference, SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek apologised to affected commuters. "We would like to apologise to commuters and all who were inconvenienced by the MRT disruptions," he said. "SMRT mobilised all engineering staff to conduct checks. We made some rectifications last night, but will continue to check on systems."
"We recognise that it was serious," LTA CEO Chew Men Leong said of the disruption which affected 250,000 commuters. He said engineers worked overnight to find out the root cause of the power trip. "We had to systematically check trains, tracks and power systems. We will continue to do our checks and minimise such occurrences."
Mr Lee Ling Wee, SMRT's director of trains, detailed a timeline of Tuesday night: "At 8.35pm our main consideration was that we didn't want passengers detrained on track. By 10.35pm, train service had resumed, but still had sporadic power trips."
"We are not 100 per cent sure on the root cause," he said. "We have an idea of where to check. We'll look through the data and find the root cause."
Mr Lee added that there are three possible causes – trains, tracks and power substations. Following overnight checks, trains have been ruled out as a cause, he said.
The LTA had earlier said preliminary investigations indicated that a faulty train caused the power to trip.
According to Mr Chew, a voltage-limiting device is being trialled for Downtown Line 1 – one that is different from the existing system which triggered Tuesday's power shutdown.
On Tuesday evening, Singapore’s two main MRT lines came to a complete halt simultaneously during the evening peak period, resulting in swathes of stranded passengers across the island at all 54 stations on the NSEWL.
Services between the Pasir Ris and Joo Koon stations were restored after two hours with trains travelling at a slower speed as a precaution, while services on the North-South Line resumed 75 minutes later, at 10.35pm.
- CNA/cy
