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SINGAPORE: As Singaporeans entered the third day of train disruptions at the East-West line, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat issued an update via Facebook to say that many people have been hard at work in the endeavour to fix the problem.

The disruption began at around 9:30 am on Wednesday (Sept 25). SMRT explained on its Facebook account that a KHI train in service for more than 35 years encountered a fault and emitted smoke en route to the Ulu Pandan Depot.

Mr Chee had been in Beijing for the Global Sustainable Transport Forum earlier this week but was informed of the disruption that affected train services between the Boon Lay and Queenstown stations.

In a post shortly before 2 am on Friday (Sept 27), Mr Chee wrote that after arriving from Beijing, he met with a number of the 300 engineers and technicians who had been “working hard over the last 40 hours” on repairs and checks to the damaged tracks and equipment.

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He then went on to explain the challenges involved in the repairs, with the workers having to replace over 30 damaged rail segments, each weighing a ton.

They must also fix the third rail and power cables supplying power to the train and point machines, which the minister said requires careful calibration and alignment. He thanked the workers for endeavouring to restore train services as soon as possible.

Before he left Beijing to return to Singapore, Mr Chee also issued an apology to commuters affected by the interruption in train services.

He explained that because the damage was “very extensive”, more time was needed by the engineers to complete the repairs and added that the train services would not be restored by Friday.

Many Singaporeans thanked Mr Chee and the workers for addressing the problem but noted that this is the longest train service disruption in Singapore’s history.

“Green line is arguably the most important line in Singapore, so I’ll say this is worst,” wrote one. Others pointed out that the train system has been running like clockwork for decades and that some breakdowns should be expected.

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“Much like cars. Every once in a while, it will break down. This doesn’t mean the car has failed. It just needs some servicing and repair,” a netizen wrote.

One suggested a way to compensate for the disruption: “Maybe a sincere token of his apology would be a waiver of the planned increase in transport fare at the end of the year?”

Others agreed, with one calling it a “pragmatic mindset” ,/TISG

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