Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan has stated that during a detrainment, the rail operator will deploy staff to assist commuters to evacuate safely to the nearest station, focusing on those with special mobility needs.
This is the response to the questions filed by NCMP Leon Perera who asked the Minister for Transport on what measures are in place during situations of train breakdowns and the potential necessity for passengers to evacuate via the rail tracks, to ensure the safety of persons who are dependent on mobility aids such as wheelchairs during evacuations.
The Minister said that SCDF personnel will also be on site, and stretchers will be used to evacuate wheelchair users as the maintenance walkway beside the running tracks is not wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs.
“The operators conduct regular detrainment exercises with LTA and SCDF, and these exercises include detraining commuters in wheelchairs. The most recent exercise was held in December 2016,” he added.
On January last year, a traction fault along North-South Line (NSL) caused the train service to be disrupted for close to two hours between Woodlands and Kranji MRT stations in both directions.
Photos posted by Mohd Fais show commuters walking on the tracks with a train stopped away from the Kranji station.
No SCDF officers are seen in the pictures and neither have them been spotted in past instances when passengers had to detrain due to train fault.
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