SINGAPORE – Early morning train commuters travelling along the East West Line experienced delays of between 20 and 30 minutes that took close to three hours to clear on Thursday (Sep 28), the first day of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

In a Facebook post, the Ministry of Education (MOE) urged affected students to inform their school as soon as possible, and to continue to head to their examination centre.

"Full paper duration would be given. No excuse letter from the train station is required," MOE added.

[EWL]:Due to track point fault,pls expect 30mins delay train travel time btwn TanahMerah & PasirRis.(Not linked to new signalling project).

SMRT first announced the delay at 5.53am, advising commuters to expect a delay of 30 minutes in their travel time between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris MRT stations. It added that it was not linked to their new signaling project.

Regular train services resumed at 8.37am. 

In between, SMRT sent out updates to keep passengers abreast of the developments.

At 6.15am, the transport operator said that the delay was between Tampines and Pasir Ris stations, and that commuters could expect a delay of 20 minutes.  This was later revised to 30 minutes at 6.39am.

Thursday marks the first day of the PSLE for Primary Six students. Their English language papers are slated to start at 8.15am. 

Several people took to Twitter to express their ire over the situation. Twitter user Kok Siang said that it was “not acceptable” considering that it was “PSLE and school exams day”.

Thursday’s delay will not be the first time students have been affected during their national examination.

On Aug 18, students sitting for their oral exams were similarly affected by a major train delay.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) had assured students then that they need not worry if they had missed their exams, and that arrangements would be made for those who arrived late.

Twin disruptions on the train network snarled the Aug 18 morning commute, with the Downtown and North-South Line experiencing major delays due to signalling faults.

The disruptions on both MRT lines lasted about three hours before the faults were cleared after 9am. At one point, beginning at about 6.25am, services on the entire Downtown Line was disrupted.

SMRT’s last reported fault occurred on Sep 15 that saw a 20 minute delay between Marina South Pier and Toa Payoh at around 9pm.