If you were one of the unfortunate commuters who experienced SMRT's delay on the East-West Line this morning, here's the cause of it: a problematic switch mechanism.

On Wednesday morning at 7.10am that train services were disrupted between Jurong East and Clementi due to a "track point fault".

It was only at 1.50pm, more than 6 hours later, that commuters were assured that train services had resumed. 

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Here are some photos of the crowd at Jurong East MRT station:

Decision made not to stop morning peak service

Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary revealed that the operator had identified that the cause of the train fault was a switch mechanism.

Speaking at the sidelines of the launch of the Land Transport Master Plan 2040, SMS Janil said that a decision was made to allow train services to continue, albeit at a slower rate so as not to cause a " very big impact on the commuter experience"; a decision that was "better for the commuters".

Here are Janil's remarks on the train fault in full:

"The MRT breakdown, we’ve identified where the problem is, it's with the switch mechanism. We could have taken a decision to stop services and allow us (authorities) to concentrate just on repairing the problem, but that would have been a very big impact on the commuter experience. So the decision we took now allows trains to pass (but it's) slowing down the commute, slowing rather than stopping. So on balance, that’s better for the commuters. But it does mean it’s going to take a little bit of time to ascertain what the problem is with the switch mechanism."

Top image by Twitter user @Brian_Teo