SINGAPORE — In a detailed explanation on why it took almost seven hours to correct a track point fault along the East-West Line (EWL) on Wednesday (Sept 19) morning, rail operator SMRT said that its engineers had to get on the tracks a total of six times to identify and work on the defect. This required train services to be halted temporarily.

Wednesday morning’s train fault at Clementi station occurred at around 7am. Regular train services resumed only at 1.50pm. At the peak of the disruptions, train delays lasted up to 40 minutes between Boon Lay and Queenstown stations.

“After the fault was detected, train services between both stations were stopped for about 30 minutes to allow our staff to go onto the track to check a faulty point machine, which is used to control train movements at rail junctions when trains move from one track to another,” SMRT said on Wednesday evening.

“Our staff inspected the point machine and assessed that train operations could continue but at a slower speed.”

The operator thus made the decision to keep train services moving, with the aim of fixing the fault after the peak period.

Train services resumed at about 7.40am, but “as a precaution”, the trains were travelling at a reduced speed when passing the track point.

The operator then deployed an engineering team to get on the tracks again at 1.20pm to fix the point machine. EWL trains at Jurong East and Clementi were thus required to stop temporarily for “up to five minutes" everytime the workers went on track to carry out repair work, SMRT said, adding that the team got on the track a total of six times.

“After the fault was rectified, train services returned progressively to normal speed,” SMRT said.

The plan to fix the fault after the peak period was to allow EWL commuters to travel from Jurong East towards the city, and commuters to travel from the city to the interchange station at Jurong East.

Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary also explained the situation to reporters at the sidelines of the official opening of the SG Mobility Gallery at the Land Transport Authority’s office. “The decision we took allows trains to pass but it’s slowing down the commute... On balance, that was better for the commuters, but it does mean that it’s going to take a little bit of time to ascertain exactly what the problem is with the switch mechanism,” he said.

SMRT apologised to commuters who were inconvenienced by Wednesday morning’s disruptions. “We sent four trains to pick up commuters travelling towards the city from Jurong East and another two trains to Clementi to serve commuters travelling towards the city.

“We have deployed more staff to assist service ambassadors to manage the peak-hour crowds at EWL stations. While the fault was being rectified, commuters were advised to add 40 minutes to their EWL journey.”

Free regular and bridging bus services were also made available to commuters between Queenstown and Boon Lay MRT stations during the delay.