SMRT has apologised for a power fault that affected thousands of commuters on three MRT lines on Wednesday (Oct. 14), during the evening peak-hour traffic.

The power fault occurred at around 7pm, and affected over 30 stations along the North-South Line, East-West Line and Circle Line.

According to Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, train services resumed at all MRT lines by 10:35pm, and engineering staff continued to work through the night to rectify the problem.

SMRT promised a full investigation

Based on SMRT's preliminary findings, there was a breakdown of insulation of a power cable between Tuas Link and Tuas West Road stations.

Although a circuit breaker at Tuas West Road station should have kicked in to isolated the fault, this did not happen, resulting in the North-South Line and the East-West Line's power system to trip.

In order to restore power to the two lines, there was an attempt to draw power from Buona Vista Intake substation (BVI).

However, this was done without first isolating the fault, which resulted in a power supply disruption to the Circle Line, which the substation also serves.

According to SMRT, the insulation fault has been identified and isolated, and the faulty component of the circuit breaker has been replaced.

The transport operator stated that train services are running normally today, and promised to look into the cause of the incident.

"We are working with LTA to conduct a full investigation into the premature failure of these components, together with the original equipment manufacturers who supplied the parts," said SMRT.

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Top image via Ashley Tan.