SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user warned commuters early on Monday morning (Sept 30) about the long queue at the Boon Lay MRT, saying that it had reached the inside of the bus interchange.
He added that those in the line would likely wait at least an hour. He also included a picture of a long, snaking line to explain that the lines were not like this in the past few weekdays in this particular station.
“The queue starts at MRT and extends till inside the bus interchange. Your waiting time to go to the gantry is probably 1 to 1.5 hours. Please avoid taking the MRT; it will only worsen later at peak hours.”
The Reddit user suggested that people who use this route take the bridging bus service instead, which is still free.
Commuters have had a challenging time since last Wednesday, after train services were disrupted on the East-West Line after a KHI train in service for more than 35 years encountered a fault and emitted smoke en route to the Ulu Pandan Depot.
This resulted in damage to the power cable and caused a power trip. Shuttle train and bus services were provided to help commuters out.
While train services were supposed to have fully resumed this morning, it was announced by SMRT yesterday that more time was needed to ensure commuter safety and the planned resumption of services was reset for Oct 1 (Tuesday).
The post author commented that while shuttle trains from Jurong East to Boon Lay were available, the delays were likely to have been caused by the rain.
One commenter who sounded frustrated by the situation suggested that officials try commuting via MRT daily while the disruption continues, presumably so they also experience what it’s like.
A Reddit user stuck in the long queue wrote, “I’m here. The queue is really insane. I don’t understand why the train frequency is once every 7 minutes.”
Another chimed in to say the situation was similar with the train to Tuas. “The queue is beyond ridiculous now. It looped around the bus interchange and is now out of the bus interchange and back outside the MRT station,” they wrote.
One wrote that they took the bus but also ended up getting stuck at Beauty World. /TISG