Everything About the Major MRT Disruptions That Affected 3 Lines & 36 Stations Summarised for You

By
George Yang
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Back in 2015, over 250,000 people were left stranded in one of the most major MRT disruptions in Singapore’s history, whereby both the North-South and East-West Lines came to a complete halt for several hours during evening rush hour.

That started the entire MRT breakdown saga, in which both the SMRT CEO and the transport minister took the heat and were “replaced”.

But soon, there were improvements along the way, albeit at a cost as SMRT admitted their mistakes while more maintenance was done, leading to shorter operating hours.

Five years down the road, minor breakdowns still occur, but major breakdowns are rare.

And today is one those rare days that the new Transport Minister, Ong Ye Kung, won’t forget.

Everything About the Major MRT Disruptions That Affected 3 Lines & 36 Stations

Remember: the 2015 disruption affected two major lines, the North-South Line and East-West Line.

Today, three lines were affected concurrently.

They’re the North-South Line, the East-West Line and the Circle Line.

However, the disruption affected just part of the lines and not the entire line.

In total, if we add everything together, a total of 36 stations were affected.

To summarise, there are the affected areas:

North-South Line: Between Woodlands MRT Station and Jurong East MRT Station
This started from 7:15pm, and free buses and bridging services are available. At around 9pm, SMRT said there won’t be any service between Marsiling MRT Station and Jurong East MRT Station.

East-West Line: Between Queenstown MRT Station and Gul Circle
This started from 7:15pm as well, and free buses and bridging services are available. At around 9pm as well, SMRT said there won’t be any train service between Dover MRT Station and Tuas Link MRT Station.
In other words, if you live in the west…sucks to be you, since both lines that lead to your house are now down.

Circle Line: Between Serangoon MRT Station and Harbour Front MRT Station
This supposedly happened at about 8:15pm. For this, it didn’t last long; at about 8:40pm, it was cleared but passengers are advised to add 25 minutes to their journey.

So, here’s a map that shows how severe the situation was:

Hui Ge should be glad that he’s no longer in the hot seat.

Caused by Power Trip

According to the LTA, preliminary investigations indicate that the incident was caused by a power trip, and they’re working with SMRT on rectification works and will carry out a full investigation into the causes.

[Update as of 8.40pm] Train services on the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL) and Circle Line (CCL) were disrupted…

Posted by Land Transport Authority – We Keep Your World Moving on Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Over in social media, images and videos of crowds are definitely worrying our Education Minister now:

It was also mentioned that some people had to walk on the track…

…and there were no lights in some stations.


Tomorrow, we should know the extent of this damage, and whether it could’ve been worse than the one in 2015.

But what’s even more worrisome is this: would this be a super-spreader event?

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]