Singapore: Track fault slows down morning commute on North-South line

Train service on parts of the North-South line, proceeding towards the city was jeopardized due to a track fault, for about five hours on Wednesday, October 25.

SMRT trains
A MRT train travels along a track in a neighbourhood in Singapore February 28, 2010. Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system consists of 90 km (56 miles) of railways stretching over 50 stations and serving around a million passengers daily, according to the company's website. REUTERS/Pablo Sanchez (SINGAPORE - Tags: TRANSPORT CITYSCAPE IMAGES OF THE DAY) Reuters

Train service on parts of the North-South line in Singapore, proceeding towards the city was jeopardized due to a track fault, for about five hours on Wednesday, October 25.

SMRT notified commuters of the fault at 5 am. Around 10:30 am, authorities revealed in a tweet stating that normal services have resumed between Yishun and Toa Payoh.

Transport operators warned of a 20-minute delay between Yishun and Toa Payoh stations in the south-bound line. They also suggested of a rush hour congestion from Yishun to Ang Mo Kio. Commuters were affected because of the delay and congestion in the line. They had to opt for different routes.

According to SMRT, trains were travelling at a much slower pace for safety reasons.

In a tweet they stated that speed restrictions were imposed over a 150-meter stretch, covering tracks between Ang Mo Kio and Bishan stations. They also assured passengers that engineers are studying the situation that led to the fault closely.

Track faults jeopardizing train movements have become a common issue of annoyance to most of the passengers. There have been previous incidents on similar grounds.

On September 20, train service along the Circle Line was delayed due to a track fault and the same reason was cited on August 30 when the East-West line faced a delay in train services for four hours at a stretch.

Authorities and engineers from SMRT are monitoring the tracks closely to find a solution which would help control such frequent track faults. But commuters are upset on the frequent track faults on SMRT's official Facebook page. Some of them have expressed their views as shown below:

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