Scenes of queue at Buona Vista: Significant delays due to disruption on MRT East-West Line

Commuters were seen queuing for bridging buses at Buona Vista MRT station at 6:15pm.

The line stretched to about 200m long and were still growing.

The line has snaked in front of an office building.

Some police officers were spotted at the scene.

Commuters affected by the disruption will be able to get home with the help of the free bridging buses. SMRT will also provide two shuttle train services from 5pm: one between Boon Lay and Jurong East, and another between Queenstown and Buona Vista.

Train services in both directions will not be available on the East-West Line (EWL) between Boon Lay and Queenstown MRT stations for at least the rest of Wednesday, Sep. 25.

There is also a possibility that normal train services will not be able to resume on Sep. 26, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat.

As the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) written examinations are scheduled to start then, the ministry is in touch with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) to prepare contingencies.

Background

An incident on Wednesday morning, where an eastbound train developed a fault near Clementi station at about 9am, has led to the ongoing disruption.

A power trip was detected at 9:25am while the train was being withdrawn, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Wednesday afternoon.

LTA added that this caused trains on the EWL between Queenstown and Boon Lay stations to stall: "Our preliminary assessment is that when the damaged train was being withdrawn, it caused damage to the tracks, including the running rails and the third rail supplying power to the train."

SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming and Group CEO Ngien Hoon Ping apologised for the "significant disruption".

They said in a Facebook post that the incident happened during the withdrawal of an old train.

SMRT said in an earlier statement about the incident that the affected vehicle was a Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) train, which has been in service for over 35 years.

It emitted smoke while returning to Ulu Pandan Depot.

This was after it encountered a fault.

All media by Mothership