Some MRT stations will close early from November 2020 till the end of the year to carry out replacement works, following a massive disruption of train services on Oct. 14, 2020.

The Land Transport Authority said on Oct. 28 that some 150km of power cables and more than 100 circuit breaker components along the Tuas West Extension will be replaced after some faulty parts led to the disruption.

The MRT stations will close early from November 2020 to facilitate the replacement of all the circuit breaker components, called trip coils.

LTA also said it will schedule early closures or late openings on weekends or full Sunday closures for “limited periods” in 2021 to facilitate the replacement work of new cables that will only arrive next year.

However, there are no details yet on the stations that will be affected by the closures.

Alstom, the main contractor of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), will carry out the replacement task.

What caused disruption

Some 123,000 commuters along the North-South, East-West and Circle lines were affected by the evening peak-hour disruption.

LTA said in its Oct. 28 report on the incident that a faulty power cable on the Tuas West Extension led to the "occurrence of concurrent faults".

The circuit breakers had also malfunctioned and did not kick in to contain the disruption.

LTA said all the power cables and trip coils along the Tuas West Extension will be replaced, following the Oct. 14 disruption.

This is to “provide additional assurance that power cable faults will not lead to another service disruption”, LTA said.

Alstom will bear the cost of replacing these parts and supply power cables with thicker metallic screens and a more resistant internal structure.

More details of the LTA report on the disruption here:

Background

Service on the Tuas West Extension started in 2017.

The Tuas West Extension is a 7.5km-long extension on the western end of the East-West Line, comprising Gul Circle, Tuas Crescent, Tuas West Road and Tuas West Link stations.

Since then, LTA said there had been four instances between 2018 and 2020 at different locations involving faults in the upper layer of the power cables.

The circuit breaker kicked in as intended and isolated the faults, which did not lead to service disruption, LTA said.

LTA raised the issue with the main contractor Alstom in January 2020.

Alstom had agreed to replace the upper of two layers of power cables at the Tuas West Extension, with replacement works scheduled to commence this month.

Key facts

How many commuters were affected by Oct. 14 breakdown?

Disruption on the NSEWL (about three-and-a-half hours) from 6.58pm to 10.34pm: Affected about 110,000 commuters.

Disruption on the Circle Line (CCL) (about an hour) from 7.34pm to 8.43pm: Affected about 13,000 commuters.

Number of commuters disembarked from stalled NSEWL and CCL trains: About 6,775 commuters.

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