LATEST UPDATE: 11:50PM. After three and a half hours of disruption, train service on the North-South Line resumed at 10:35pm, while service on the East-West Line resumed earlier at 9:20pm, but trains were moving at slower speeds. Islandwide bus services were free and kept running for 30 minutes longer than usual, SMRT said. Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew also instructed SMRT and the LTA to work all night to ensure train service is fully operational the next day. More updates below.
Singapore's two key train lines were on Tuesday evening hit by twin disruptions, affecting thousands of commuters.
Here's the Land Transport Authority's final statement on what happened:
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MEDIA STATEMENT ON NSEWL SERVICE DISRUPTIONFull train service resumed at 10.35pm at reduced speeds. ...
Prior to this, however, they had published tweets informing of free bus services across all bus stops at the stations on both lines:
Update: Free bus service is available for all North South and East West Line stations. — SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) July 7, 2015
As early as just past 7pm, commuters were reporting to us that they were stuck in stalled trains, some of which lost power and lights intermittently. Others told us they were later on asked to exit the trains they were on and to get onto free buses.
Photo courtesy of Christine Low
As a result, bus stops immediately outside the train stations are crammed with crowds, with station staff directing passengers to other bus stops to take free bus services from there as well.
"Train station staff are telling people to get on any bus and you will be sent to wherever you want to go," one commuter, Christine Low, told Mothership.sg. She was on a train at Newton station when the lights in part of her cabin went out twice, briefly.
Photo courtesy of Christine Low
"When the train stalled, there were two announcements about a traction fault causing a delay," she added. She and other passengers were on the train for 20 minutes with the doors shut, but when they opened again, everyone on board rushed out.
This is the scene at Novena MRT station:
Photo courtesy of Andrew Pang
And here are pictures of the scene outside and inside Raffles Place:
Photo courtesy of Phap Duong Dieu
Photo courtesy of Phap Duong Dieu
Another commuter, Ooi Kang Sheng, said the air-conditioning went off together with the lights when the train he was on was at Tiong Bahru, which stalled for between 10 to 15 minutes before he was instructed to disembark from it.
"Some of the people on the train said, 'Not again!'," added another commuter.
Photo courtesy of Clarabelle Lin
Research officer Clarabelle Lin, who was stranded at Yio Chu Kang station, said buses 851, 852 and 853 passing by were crammed to the brim, only opening their back doors for commuters to board.
"This picture I took was one bus stop away from Yio Chu Kang MRT, opposite Anderson JC," she said. "Many are walking to the bus stop further up, even."
Over at Commonwealth, our reporter Kintan Andanari says angry commuters are shouting at one another.
"A guy is so frustrated he kept tapping the buses, asking them to go," she added.
Commuter Mok Shi Qi said she was not informed of the disruption while riding the train on the Circle Line and only learned about it upon tapping out at Bishan.
She shares this scene of the crowd outside the train station with us:
Photo courtesy of Mok Shi Qi
"SMRT should be making announcements to passengers on the other lines — I would have alighted at Marymount instead of Bishan if I knew about this earlier," she said.
Over at Raffles Place MRT station, however, commuters were given leaflets detailing alternative route directions and maps:
Photo by Marcus Tan
Photo by Marcus Tan
They were also informed that they have 14 days to claim refunds for their trips after tapping in and out of the station.
SMRT's response
Meanwhile, by 8:45pm, SMRT said they successfully de-trained all the passengers on their trains as their engineers carried out power tests on batches of 10 trains at a time each.
Here are the first two statements from SMRT:
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South East West Line update 7:38pm 7 Jul'15:Due to a power fault on the North South East West Line, trains will...
South East West Line update 7:45pm 7 Jul'15:Commuters are advised avoid taking the North South East West Line as we rectify the power fault. Please take the free bus services or other train lines.
South East West Line update 8:31pm 7 Jul'15:Our trains have completed tests on the East West line from Pasir Ris to Joo Koon MRT stations. We are working towards resuming services on the East West Line.
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew also took to Facebook to express his extreme concern about tonight's disruption, the first time both compass lines went down at the same time:
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am extremely concerned with today’s incident. This is the first time that services on both the North-South and...
We'll have more updates for you as this story develops. Meanwhile, if it isn't already clear to you, please avoid going anywhere near the North-South and East-West train lines, or their affiliated bus stops!
Additional reporting by Tan Xing Qi, He Ruiming, Kintan Andanari and Marcus Tan
Top photo courtesy of Ooi Kang Sheng.
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July 07, 08:00 PM 
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