Transport Minister Apologised for MRT Breakdowns & Provided More Details About the Disruption

In case you’re unaware, massive MRT disruptions happened last evening, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for years.

In total, 3 lines and over 36 stations were affected.

One of our readers told us that the bus service 502 she took to return to the west was packed to the brim last night, an unusual sight given that it was 9pm and on a Wednesday evening, to boot.

Well, Singapore’s transport minister has now responded to the incident.

Transport Minister Apologises for MRT Breakdowns & Provide More Details About the Disruption

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung might’ve only been in the hot seat for a few months but that isn’t stopping him from stepping up to the plate to take responsibility.

In a Facebook post uploaded at around midnight, Mr Ong apologised for all the disruption and troubles caused by the massive MRT breakdown.

Around 119 bridging bus services (buses that travel along the MRT route) and 400 staff were activated and deployed to affected stations to provide assistance, he added.

When the incident happened, LTA explained that it was due to a power trip.

Mr Ong confirmed that the breakdown was caused by a power trip and it wasn’t just the trains that were affected.

The stations were plunged into darkness, he added in his post, and MRT staff had to use their own torchlights while “shuffling” in the dark.

Emphasising that passengers’ safety was the utmost priority, he stated that services on the NSEWL (North-South-East-West-Line) was restored at 2234 hours.

You can read his full post below:

In case you can’t read:

Has been a rough and stressful evening for many commuters. We are sorry for the disruption and all the troubles caused.

When the disruption happened, around 115 bridging buses and 400 SMRT staff were quickly deployed to affected MRT stations and bus stops to guide commuters and help them continue on their journeys.

But it was a power trip and the lights were out. So the staff used torchlights to shuffle along slowly in the dark. A friend texted to say two passengers were feeling unwell in the train. I got the message through to LTA and SMRT to attend to them quickly.

Safety of the commuters remained topmost on our minds tonight.

As at 2234 hrs, the power cable fault has been isolated and services on NSEWL have been restored. The engineering team will work through the night to rectify the problem. There will be students taking national exams tomorrow and we are on standby to help each and every child get to their centres safely and on time.

In credence to his previous posting as the Education Minister, Mr Ong also added that with the national exams tomorrow, the public transport of Singapore is on standby and committed to getting each and every student to their exam centres on time.

Netizens’ Reactions

His Facebook post garnered different reactions from different people.

Some were impressed by the sincere apology and the updates he’s provided:

While others commend the SMRT engineering team for helping to get the MRT lines up and running in such a short moment:

Of course, not everyone’s happy with the situation (understandable) and some took the opportunities to harshly denounce SMRT:

While one demanded “justice”:

Some affected passengers also had difficulties in boarding the bridging buses:

Nonetheless, at the end of the day, one netizen hit the nail on the head:

A Serious Disruption

Last evening, the social media scene in Singapore was peppered with videos of the major disruption:

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

…and there were no lights in some stations.

Bruh Boon Lay also wth pic.twitter.com/PTJuKKTBbn

— CIpherLovesDonuts (@CipherDonuts) October 14, 2020

Well, here’s hoping that this will be the only major MRT disruption for 2020.