Commuters on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) experienced delays on Tuesday morning (1 July), after a signalling fault slowed train services between Caldecott and Bayshore, extending travel times by up to 30 minutes during the peak hour.
Normal services resumed at 8.19am, about two hours after the disruption started.
In a Facebook update at 6.17am, SMRT alerted the public to a delay of up to 30 minutes between Caldecott and Bayshore, citing a “signalling fault”.
Source: SMRT on Facebook
Additionally, it was announced that there was no train service between Napier and Great World.
To ease the jam, free regular bus services were deployed at Caldecott and Gardens by the Bay.
About 20 minutes later, at 6.40am, SMRT said free bridging services were also available at the two stations.
Source: SMRT on Facebook
At 6.59am, SMRT added another update to advise commuters to take “alternative lines” towards the city area.
At 8.14am — nearly two hours after the start of the disruption — SMRT announced that services were “progressively resuming”, but the free buses and bridging buses remained active at Caldecott and Gardens by the Bay just in case.
Finally, at 8.19am, SMRT confirmed that normal train operations had resumed. All supporting bus services were fully withdrawn by 8.27am.
In another post, SMRT clarified that the issue had stemmed from a signalling fault at Orchard station along the TEL.
Source: SMRT on Facebook
Engineers were deployed to rectify the issue.
“We thank all affected commuters this morning for their understanding and patience,” the post said.
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Featured image adapted from SMRT on Facebook and SMRT on Facebook.