Commuters on the Downtown Line (DTL) faced an early morning headache today (28 Aug) when train services between Bukit Panjang and Beauty World stations came to a halt for nearly an hour due to a signalling fault.
SBS Transit first announced the disruption on Facebook at 6.35am, confirming there was no train service between the two stations.
The affected stretch included Cashew, Hillview, and Hume stations.
Source: Prabu Ramachandran on Facebook
To ease the impact, the operator rolled out free regular and bridging bus services at designated stops.
It urged commuters to use the “Alternative Transport Option” feature on the SBS Transit app or the “Find My Way” tab in the Land Transport Authority’s MyTransport app to plan their journeys.
By 7.15am, recovery works were underway, with train shuttle services made available.
At 7.40am, SBS Transit said that the DTL train service was progressively resuming service as the fault “has been recovered since 7.22am”.
Free regular and bridging bus services were still available by then.
The last update came at 8.10am, with SBS Transit announcing that the STL service has resumed and apologising for the inconvenience caused.
Source: David Teo Boon Hwee on Facebook
This marks another in a string of major train disruptions in August, sparking fresh concerns over Singapore’s rail reliability.
On 6 Aug, the East-West Line (EWL) experienced a 25-minute disruption.
On 12 Aug, a rare “double fault” scenario led to a power cut on both the North-East Line (NEL) and the Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT), resulting in three-hour and ten-hour delays on the NEL and SPLRT, respectively.
Just three days later, service on the SPLRT was disrupted again due to a power cable fault between Farmway and Kupang stations.
Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow has called the recent disruptions “disappointing”, and politicians, including PSP’s Leong Mun Wai and WP’s Jamus Lim, have urged the re-examination of the public transport system’s reliability.
Also read: No service on Sengkang-Punggol LRT on 15 Aug morning, 2nd incident in 4 days
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Featured image adapted from Prabu Ramachandran on Facebook and David Teo Boon Hwee on Facebook.