East-West Line train disruption to continue into 27 Sept, LTA aiming for partial restoration of service

Train disruption on East-West Line to continue on 27 Sept, Minister for Transport apologises

After two days of disrupted train service on the East-West Line (EWL), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the disruption will last until 27 Sept.

The disruption on the morning of 25 Sept impacted 9 MRT stations from Boon Lay to Queenstown and affected 358,000 commuters.

SMRT has arranged for free regular bus and bridging bus services for those affected.

LTA announced on the same evening that shuttle trains were running in 10-minute intervals between Boon Lay and Jurong East, as well as from Buona Vista to Queenstown.

This left a four-station stretch of Jurong East, Clementi, Dover, and Buona Vista still lacking any train service.

Later on, LTA announced that there would still be no service on 26 Sept between the affected MRT stations.

Today, LTA once again wrote on Facebook saying they were “unable to resume train services between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations in both directions”.

As such, the disruption would continue into its third day on 27 Sept. Measures to help affected commuters will also continue.

“80 double-deck buses have also been deployed for free bus bridging services between Buona Vista and Jurong East in both directions,” LTA wrote in their post.

LTA added that they were aiming for a “partial restoration of train services” on 27 Sept.

This would come in the form of a single-line shuttle service running every 20 minutes between those four MRT stations.

Disruption caused by train bogie coming off the rails

LTA also provided an update on the incident that caused the power fault and disruption of the East-West Line.

The faulty train had a defective axle box that dropped, “causing one bogie to come off the running rail”.

A bogie is a chassis under train carriages which carries sets of wheels. These wheels move on the track’s running rails.

LTA stated that the train wheels going off the rails severely damaged the track equipment.

Several photos and videos of that particular train also circulated online, showing a carriage seemingly off the track.

34 rail breaks found between Clementi and Dover stations

LTA further stated that engineers identified 34 rail breaks on a 1.6-kilometre stretch of track between Clementi and Dover MRT stations.

The incident had also damaged the third rail which supplies power to trains, as well as several power cables and rail clips.

In addition, LTA reported that three point machines, used for diverting trains onto different tracks, had suffered damage.

“SMRT engineers and technicians are currently working to repair and replace the damaged track and equipment.”

The Minister for Transport, Chee Hong Tat, recorded a video from Beijing before his flight back to Singapore.

In it, he offered his “sincere apologies” to Singapore’s commuters for the disruption.

“Our workers are doing their best to safely restore train services as soon as possible.”

Also read: No MRT service from Jurong East to Buona Vista on 26 Sept, engineers working throughout the day

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Featured image adapted from SMRT on Facebook.