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Software fault behind Tuesday morning's East-West Line delay: SMRT

A crowd of commuters at the train platform at Outram Park. Photo courtesy of Tan See Kiat
A crowd of commuters at the train platform at Outram Park. Photo courtesy of Tan See Kiat

A software fault affecting the signalling system on the East-West Line (EWL) was the cause of the delay in train services on Tuesday morning (24 October), said rail operator SMRT.

“At about 8.30am today, the East-West Line encountered a software fault on the legacy signalling system. The fault was rectified in around 10 minutes, but the EWL experienced some train traffic congestion during the morning peak because trains had to move at slower speeds for safety reasons when the fault occurred,” said SMRT vice president of corporate communications Patrick Nathan in an email to Yahoo News Singapore.

“As such, commuters may have encountered delays to their journey this morning. Station and train announcements were made informing commuters of the fault and to add an additional train travel time of 10 minutes. Normal services resumed at 9.00am. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to affected commuters on their peak hour commute,” said Nathan.

Some affected commuters complained online that there were no updates on SMRT’s social media platforms on the disruption.

A number of commuters posted photos on social media showing large crowds at station platforms this morning. Some commuters claimed the trains did not move for as long as 25 minutes.

Yahoo News Singapore also asked why SMRT did not give updates on social media on the latest delay, as well as the delay on the EWL during rush hour on 19 September, but these queries were not addressed.