SINGAPORE: East-West Line train services were disrupted again on Thursday (Oct 10), and as usual, netizens were among the first to alert others, posting photos just minutes after troubles started.
After a disruption affected the line from Sept 25 to 30, some may have felt a sense of déjà vu.
However, the Oct 10 incident took only an hour to resolve. SMRT explained that it was a train-borne electrical fault, distinct from the lengthier incident late last month, which involved an axle box.
A westbound KHI train stalled near the station at Tiong Bahru on Thursday. Fortunately, all passengers were able to disembark safely at Outram Park station.
Commuters were advised, however, to expect almost half an hour of additional travel time.
To assist them, free regular bus services were made available between Queenstown and Outram Park.
Local Reddit users were quick to post photos of the disruption.
One commuter at the Outram Park station posted a photo of people queuing as an FYI to others.
“Two trains have been put out of service since 12.20pm,” wrote u/CrayfishTac0s on a Reddit Singapore thread.
Perhaps the lengthy September disruption was still fresh in people’s minds since a number of commenters took a snarky or sarcastic tone.
“Good old days,” wrote one.
Others made barbed jokes about the trains not being “over maintained.”
Some worried that this latest disruption would cause Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat another sleepless night.
During the Sept 25 disruption, Mr Chee had been at the Global Sustainable Transport Forum in Beijing and came back to Singapore late at night. He then went on to meet with some of the engineers and technicians who had been working on repairs.
Another Reddit user posted a photo of a sign showing that commuters travelling on the EWL needed to factor an additional 25 minutes into their travelling time.
One netizen expressed a degree of despair, writing, “Aiya what now?” and joking that they still had PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from the “horrors” of the previous incident.
While many of the commenters were initially upset to see the announcement and hoped repairs would not take too long, many others also expressed relief when train services resumed pretty quickly.
One Reddit user was just thankful that the incident occurred in the middle of the day and not during peak hours. /TISG