Another Train Service Disruption
Tuesday, 13 Oct — the haze is back at a PSI level of 154 and so are the train breakdowns.
Train services were suspended for at least 20 minutes at several stations on the North-East Line during this morning’s rush hour due to a power fault.
Source
Lets take a look at the situation:
Looks like someone hasn’t been paying the electricity bills on time.
Source
And at least four stations – Hougang, Kovan, Serangoon, and Woodleigh – were hit by the blackout.
Though the train services were evidently inefficient, the SBS Transit’s marketing team were on the ball the entire time.
They made sure to give timely updates about the situation going on and even apologized. :’)
No NEL service between Farrer Pk NE8 & Hougang NE14 due to power fault. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
— SBS Transit (@SBSTransit_Ltd) October 13, 2015
Not that the apology is going to make the situation any better. But thank you SBS Transit, we appreciate the noble-ness.
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Let’s take a look at how some fellow Singaporeans were feeling.
The scene at sengkang. Just got the annoucement abt no train past hougang. Thanks for the delayed annoucement btw pic.twitter.com/Ovj7tq7bc3
— Zzz Generator (@virginangelic) October 13, 2015
https://twitter.com/_Zieana/status/653719399635943426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
HELP has arrived
As per usual protocol, free shuttle services were available for affected commuters.
13/10,8.06am: No NEL service btwn Farrer Pk NE8 & Hougang NE14. To continue your journey, free bus rides available at designated bus stops
— SBS Transit (@SBSTransit_Ltd) October 13, 2015
On the other hand
While all this was going on, lets take a look at what our favourite Transport Minister was up to.
Nope.
He continues his daily train adventures and shares his new-found Circle Line experience with the world via Facebook.
So maybe he wasn’t ignoring the situation, he was probably on his way to Sembawang Park to “work” on how he could solve the problem and probably got lost…
Our Transport Minister got lost taking the Circle Line. WE ARE DOOMED.
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Being Prepared
We’re sure it’s entirely coincidental that Minister Khaw addressed the issue of being prepared for future breakdowns in a blogpost yesterday (12 Oct), and a breakdown happens today.
He addressed that there must be plans in place to recover the transport service disruptions quickly and minimise inconvenience to commuters.
While this service disruption has caused much inconvenience to many, the time taken to solve this issue was certainly much faster than the July 7th breakdown — where people waited 3.5 hours for the East-West line to be restored.
There must therefore be comprehensive contingency plans for breakdowns. More importantly, there must be actual and regular walk-throughs and ‘live rehearsals’. This will ensure smoother execution of such plans when disruptions happen,
— Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan
He added that SMRT and SBS Transit should walk through their contingency plans – which have been improved following a huge breakdown on Jul 7 – at each train station.
This is a great idea, and definitely one which should be acted on immediately.
I had earlier asked LTA to conduct one collective exercise with SMRT and SBST this month, so that we can test the contingency plans which they had enhanced since the 7 July incident. I will be there to observe the exercise.
Fortunately, there will be one conducted soon this month.
Props to the SBS Transit team for solving the blackout situation quickly.
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With reference to Channel NewsAsia, The Straits Times, TODAY Online, MOT Blog
