North-South Line Commuters Claim They Were Informed Of MRT Disruption Late, SMRT Apologises

Commuters Say SMRT Could Have Informed Them Of Train Disruption Sooner

In the early hours of Wednesday (19 Oct), the North-South Line train services were disrupted and for an hour, did not run from Yio Chu Kang to Canberra stations.

This left throngs of confused commuters at MRT stations during the morning rush hour.

SMRT put up signs and informed commuters to take alternative transport via other MRT lines or the free bus services.

However, after the incident, countless commuters complained that they only received information about the disruption late, which affected their journeys.

North-South MRT Line disrupted from 6.40am

At about 7.29am on Wednesday (19 Oct), SMRT shared in a Facebook post that a faulty engineering vehicle could not move from the northbound platform near Yishun Station.

This problem was first discovered at around 4.30am. At about 6.40am, northbound train service from Yio Chu Kang to Canberra stations were stopped.

Four train stations were affected, including Yishun and Khatib. This was to allow engineers to access the faulty vehicle.

Though the rest of the train service continued to be available, commuters were told to add 15 minutes to their travel time.

SMRT then announced that free regular bus and bridging bus services were available between Woodlands and Ang Mo Kio stations in both directions.

They advised commuters to take these buses or take alternative transport via the Thomson-East Coast Line or Circle Line.

From 7.45am, train services progressively resumed.

According to their Facebook post, by 8.48am, all train services were back to normal.

Commuters say SMRT should inform of disruption earlier

Shortly after SMRT’s Facebook post was published, commuters began flooding the comment section.

While a train fault is unavoidable, one netizen felt that SMRT could have improved their communication with commuters.

She explained that she was at Khatib Station since 6.30am, after SMRT first detected the fault, but was still able to enter the station.

Echoing her thoughts, another commuter said SMRT should have informed the public sooner so they could have taken alternative modes of transport promptly.

Meanwhile, others shared that they couldn’t board the alternative buses as commuters crowded nearly every vehicle.

While the southbound train service ran as normal, a netizen claimed that commuters still crowded the platforms due to the train fault.

Source: FacebookThe situation was apparently so chaotic that one commuter claimed that SMRT staff on site were unsure about how to advise the public.

Commuters crowd MRT stations & bus stops

At around 7.50am, one netizen shared a photo of a packed Yishun MRT station.

However, there were also others who posted pictures of similar scenes at stations that were supposedly unaffected by the train fault.

One commuter alleged that trains were only arriving every 15 minutes at stations between Choa Chu Kang and Jurong East. As a result, he ended up waiting roughly 30 minutes.

A similar situation apparently occurred nearby at Yew Tee Station.

Over at Yio Chu Kang Station, commuters captured rather disorderly scenes as throngs of people flocked the bus stops to board the feeder buses.

In their Facebook post, SMRT apologised for affecting the early morning commute.

Hopefully, moving forward, SMRT will be able to learn from the incident and conduct operations more smoothly should disruptions happen.

We also hope that commuters managed to reach their destinations safely this morning.

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Featured image adapted from Facebook and SG Road Vigilante on Facebook.