SINGAPORE, Jan 4 — Recent MRT disruptions on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) in Singapore were caused by unrelated incidents, SMRT said.
In a Facebook post, SMRT stated that engineers from SMRT, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Alstom are investigating the root causes of the disruptions to prevent future occurrences.
“Engineers from SMRT, LTA and Alstom are working together to investigate the root causes of each incident,” SMRT said in the post.
The first incident occurred on December 27 due to a signalling fault that disrupted communication between the system and the trains.
This caused multiple trains to receive stop commands, requiring manual operation at 18 kph after system resets.
The second incident on December 29 involved intermittent brake faults on a train departing a station.
“In line with safety protocols, the train was manually operated at 18 kph. The fault cleared automatically, allowing regular train services to resume shortly after,” SMRT added.
Preliminary findings point to a possible component fault within the train.
The third disruption happened on January 2 when a train approaching Orchard station activated its emergency brake system.
The train was manually operated following the incident, with investigations into the root cause still ongoing.
Despite these issues, train services continued operating in both directions, although commuters were advised to plan for an additional 10 to 15 minutes of travel time.
SMRT’s Facebook post highlighted that ensuring commuter safety remains a top priority for the organisation.
