Train Fault Along North-South Line This Morning (19 Mar) Caused By Faulty Platform Door

If you take the North-South Line (NSL) to work daily, at around 8.30am, you were probably caused an obscene amount of distress during this morning’s commute to work.

Train Fault Along North-South Line Today Caused By Faulty Platform Door

At around 8.28am on 19 Mar 2021 (Friday), SMRT Corporation took to their Twitter account to add ten minutes of travel time from Ang Mo Kio to Braddell.

[NSL]: Due to a platform screen door fault, pls add 5mins train travel time from #AngMoKio to #Braddell towards #MarinaSouthPier.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 19, 2021

About a minute later, online commuter community MRT Singapore Service Information revealed that the fault was caused by “a platform screen doors failure at Bishan Southbound”.

Because of a Platform Screen Doors Failure at Bishan Southbound

Additional 10 mins are required between AMK and Braddell

Some Southbound trains will terminate at AMK to keep services between Jurong East and AMK running

There will be trains withdrawing at Jurong East Platform A pic.twitter.com/XMCJQdKBzq

— MRT Singapore Service Information (@mrtsginfo) March 19, 2021

Longer Than Ten Minutes

If you were travelling to work and you’re now late through no fault of your own, you’d probably be unhappy.

And commuters were really unhappy, especially with the travelling time estimate.

Mr Arjun Nair, who was one of the commuters affected by the fault, said that the delay was announced at around 8.20am.

According to him, his train started to slow down and jerk at Yio Chu Kang MRT station.

He alighted at Ang Mo Kio and had to wait for twenty minutes before he got onto a train.

The situation was seemingly chaotic as well.

“A lot of people were looking at the time. Some tried to jump the queue and board the train.”

He wasn’t the only one to experience a more-than-10-minutes delay, either.

According to Twitter user @yzfanggg, it took him more than 30 minutes to travel from Ang Mo Kio to Braddell.

“It took me 30 minutes travel time from AMK to Bishan and I’m late for work, it would be great if y’all don’t lie about the travel time??”

Another Twitter user said that the train took “a good 30 minutes” at 9.21am.

Why The Delay

We’ve had the chance to talk with SMRT people before, and just like you, we had a burning question to ask:

Why is the estimated time almost always shorter than reality?

Here’s what we understand from their response.

When a fault occurs, you have trains that are stuck at the stations before, or even between stations.

Think of it as a traffic jam, except with the MRT, there’s only one lane.

And these trains cannot zoom past the stations, there will be people who are alighting and those who are boarding.

So it takes time for the “pile-up” to clear.

One thing for sure, though, is that they’re always trying to clear up the disruption as fast as they can.

Not The First Time

Earlier in March this year, a fault at the Braddell MRT station along the North-South Line (NSL) caused platform doors to stay open.

This resulted in the SMRT staff having to keep the doors open on the side heading towards Marina South Pier. Police officers and SMRT staff were seen asking commuters to stand further behind to avoid any mishaps.

During this incident, however, train services were not halted.

The speed of incoming and outgoing trains, however, was reduced as a safety measure.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

• Some MRT Stations on EWL to Close for Cable Replacement Works From 14 Mar to 23 May
• Faulty Platform Screen Doors at Braddell MRT Station Stayed Open as Trains Continued Running

Feature Image: Adwo / Shutterstock.com