Commuters travelling along the North. East Line were inconvenienced as a train fault at Little India station disrupted services during morning peak hours today. There was a similar disruption only two days ago on the East West Line.
At 7.35 am, service operator SBS Transit announced on Twitter that services would be delayed due to a train fault. Commuters were informed 20 minutes later that there would be no train service in both directions between Outram Park and Potong Pasir stations. Free shuttle bus services were deployed to bridge affected commuters between the two stations.
Frustrated commuters reported on social media that the delays took longer than what SBS Transit led them to believe. Commuters also decried the exorbitant prices that were being charged for taxis and cars on private-hire ride hailing platform Grab because of high demand:
Finally the train move, lol now stucked at Sengkang ????????♀️ if i were to take cab $54 and confirm traffic congested too plus havent include ERP charges. pic.twitter.com/3cKlJJJDLu
— ????نوراشيلا???? (@s_heilx) April 11, 2018
I'm in sengkang. at 7.30 i was told trains in both directions were not moving. escalator leading to platform shut off. shuttle bus not due to start for another 30 mins
— tyrima kasih (@tykhrn) April 10, 2018
Have been in the train at Punggol station since 715am and announcement still claim saying its an additional 20 minutes delay!
— Nur Diyana (@Diydee) April 10, 2018
More n more people stuck at sengkang! @SBSTransit_Ltd #breakdown #northeastline #delay”15”min only pic.twitter.com/LuaQc6a59t
— missywinter (@l_missywinter_l) April 10, 2018
SBS Transit tweeted that train service resumed around 8.35 am, but advised commuters that stations might still be crowded. Commuters were also told to expect an additional 15 minutes’ travelling time between Punggol and HarbourFront stations.
This latest train disruption comes just two days after a train fault along the East West Line caused a three-hour disruption on Monday morning.
Commuters reported swelling crowds in East West Line stations and shared that services along the line were delayed since 7.11 am that morning, but service operator SMRT only began tweeting updates on the situation from 7.36 am onwards.
SMRT then released a flood of tweets, informing East West Line commuters that they were working to resolve the issue and asking commuters to add 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes and 10 minutes additional travel time at multiple intervals: 
Disgruntled commuters questioned the usefulness of shorter operational hours over weekends, to allow more time for technicians to resolve technical issues, since service disruptions still occur:
I thought all the early closure and late starts were to prevent this from happening .
— Aku (@kuhanesh88) April 8, 2018
Early closure but still the track fault in the Morning
— JunMoLaughing (@_young_Rex_) April 8, 2018
track improvement but pioneer to buona takes 30mins lmao smrt do your shit pls
— ⚓️ (@stlxq) April 8, 2018
https://theindependent.sg.sg/sleeping-on-the-job-expert-who-helped-convince-lky-to-build-mrt-network-says-signalling-system-was-to-be-upgraded-in-2002/