All 4 SMRT MRT & LRT lines hit by power trip

Описание: Train service on the North-South and East-West lines were disrupted for about half an hour as SMRT reported a traction power fault. Several MRT stations were also hit by blackouts.

SINGAPORE: Several MRT stations along the East-West, North-South and Circle Lines were hit by a blackout on Monday evening (Apr 25), with some commuters reporting that they were stuck on trains for up to half an hour.

SMRT released a statement at 9.10pm announcing that the power trip was traced to a "power dip" at the Buona Vista power intake station. It said the stations affected were those from Buona Vista to Joo Koon on the East-West Line, Jurong East to Kranji on the North-South Line and Caldecott to HarbourFront on the Circle Line.

Services on the North-South East-West Lines resumed at 8.23pm, SMRT said.

It added that four trains on the Bukit Panjang LRT Line were stalled between stations and 150 passengers were evacuated safely from trains.

TIMELINE OF DISRUPTION

7.53pm: Power trip occurs.

8pm: Numerous commuters take to social media to report the blackouts. Twitter user Nikki de Guzman, who posted a photo of a station in darkness, says SMRT announced that train services along the North-South and East-West lines would be delayed.

8:05pm: Social media users also report that the Circle Line was affected. Channel NewsAsia understands that services along the Circle Line were down for around 15 minutes.

8.10pm: When contacted by Channel NewsAsia, public transport operator SMRT said there was a power trip between Buona Vista and Joo Koon stations along the East-West Line, and Jurong to Kranji along the North-South Line.

8.11pm: SMRT tweets that there is no train service between Joo Koon and Bugis on the East-West Line, and between Woodlands and Jurong East on the North-South Line due to a traction power fault.

8.34pm: SMRT says train service has resumed. It says to expect crowding at some stations as trains are travelling at a slower speed.

9.52pm: SMRT says train service on the Bukit Panjang LRT line has resumed, and free shuttle buses are still available.

TRAIN SUDDENLY BRAKED

Commuter Josiah Berlian said the train he was on stalled while travelling from Raffles Place to Bishan around 8pm. "As the train left Novena, there was a sudden huge braking and the train stopped for 3 to 5 minutes. The public announcement system (PA) said there was a system error. The train resumed movement but stopped again at Toa Payoh station for about 15 to 20 minutes before resuming service. The power and lights remained on. The PA said engineers were fixing the issue."

Another commuter Darren Tan said he was on an East-West Line train at about 8.15pm when it suddenly stopped at Queenstown station. "There was a blackout in half the train carriage, the other half was okay." After about two to three minutes, there was an announcement that there was a power failure, he said. He added that there was no visible panic among the 100 or so passengers in the train, and the service resumed after about 10 minutes.

The last train disruption involving multiple lines took place during the evening rush hour on July 7 last year. Services on the North-South and East-West Lines were disrupted for more than two hours due to a power fault, affecting 413,000 commuters. The breakdown - possibly the worst in history - led to a record S$5.4 million fine for SMRT.

To prevent the recurrence of such an event, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) appointed an independent advisory panel to assess the MRT power supply system last December.

Last week, LTA said the panel found that the MRT power supply system had "achieved a high availability", but recommended the performance of the system be assessed against a "more holistic perspective of system resilience".

LTA also announced that it was working with train operators to replace the existing voltage protection system on the MRT network with Voltage-Limiting Devices, which would trip and isolate only specific stretches of the system where faults occurred. This would "minimise power-related incidents and enhance overall rail reliability", the authority said.