The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SBS Transit (SBST) announced that the investigations on the faulty platform screen door at the Downtown Line (DTL) Sixth Avenue Station on 4 October has been completed.
LTA and SBST said that a bolt on the fastener which secures the affected platform screen door to the guide rail was found to have loosened over time. This caused the door to be misaligned and coming into contact with the side of an approaching train. Fortunately, no commuters were hurt in this incident.
They said that the platform screen doors at Sixth Avenue station were last checked by SBST in August 2016 as part of its routine maintenance, and none were found to be faulty.
However, following the incident, all DTL platform screen doors, including bolts and securing mechanisms went through further extensive inspections. All the platform screen doors were found to be functioning normally. Platform screen doors on the other rail lines were also inspected, and found to be secure and in good working condition.
LTA and SBST stated that they had also approached the original equipment manufacturers of the DTL doors to enhance the design of the platform screen door fasteners. A self-locking nut and a retaining pin will be added as an additional measure to better secure the fastener to the guiding rail.
Current Fastener Design
Enhanced Fastener Design
According to them, the enhancement works to the doors are expected to be completed in the next two weeks. All platform screen doors for the upcoming DTL3 will also use this enhanced fastener design. Going forward, more specific checks on all DTL platform screen doors will be done as part of routine maintenance.
“The platform screen door design on the other existing rail lines will be retained as they are of a different design from the doors on DTL, and have been operating well for some years without any report of loosened mechanical parts,” they said.
On 4 October morning, SBST tweeted that there was no service between King Albert Park Stations and Sixth Avenue Station at 7.48am due to platform screen door fault.
Commuters crowded at the bus stops as a result of the service disruption. At 8.25am, SBS Transit tweeted that the service had resumed with free bus rides and bridging bus still available to commuters at designated bus stops.
The DTL opened its service on 27 December. The incident is DTL’s second major disruption after less than a year in operation. On 4 May, a train inexplicably applied its emergency brakes. The affected train held up services between Bukit Panjang and Sixth Ave stations and it was eventually removed.
