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7-member team begin internal probe on SMRT's December disruptions

(UPDATED 1130PM)

A seven-man team has been appointed by the SMRT board to investigate last month's MRT disruptions on the 15 and 17 of December.

The seven individuals in the Internal Investigation Team (IIT) have been tasked to help the train operator  understand the root causes of the disruptions and what organisational processes can be improved.

They are:

- John H Brichall, director of Safety at Keppel Land
- Stephen Forshaw, managing director corporate affairs for Temasek
- Vincent Lim, formerly chief executive director of Mass Rapid Transit Corporation and current the executive director (Special Projects) of Sentosa Development Corporation
-former executive director of MRT Corporation and deputy CEO of LTA, Low Tien Sio
- Prof Su Guaning, a professional engineer and former president of the Nanyang Technological University
- Mr James Tan, chief executive of Aetos Security and former Commissioner of Singapore Civil Defence Force.

The team, which started work on Tuesday, is being led by deputy secretary-general of National Trades Union Congress Ong Ye Kung and has started work on Tuesday.

The team will investigate causes that led to the incidents and review the organisation's performance in the handling of crisis management.

It seems the team will have their work cut out for them.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, another slight delay during peak hour morning traffic affected commuters on the East-West line.

In a statement, train operator SMRT said that at around 9:15am a speed restriction was imposed on westbound train service between Clementi and Jurong East to allow staff to rectify a signalling fault at the latter station.

As a result, travelling speed between the two stations slowed down to seven minutes from the usual four minutes.

It also had a knock-on effect on westbound service going towards Clementi, according to SMRT, which added that travel time between Dover and Jurong East doubled to 14 minutes from the usual six or seven minutes.

“Our engineers rectified the fault at around 9.48am. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” SMRT said.

Announcements were made at stations to inform commuters of the brief delay, said an SMRT spokesperson.

Yahoo! Singapore reader Maverick Tok said that he saw station staff running along the track while on his way to work, adding that the delay made him late in reaching his destination.

Twitter user @WhatTannaSaid tweeted about the slowdown as well, saying, “Late on the first day of work year (because of the train delay). Happy New Year Tuesday Blues Workers.”