The SBS Transit operated DownTown Line (DTL) experienced service disruption of over seven hours on Wednesday morning due to a signalling fault at its Botanic Garden MRT station.
At about 7.41 am on Wednesday (3 May), SBS Transit announced that its was experiencing a signalling fault and asked commuters to add 10 minutes travelling time between its Bukit Panjang and Chinatown MRT stations.
Many commuters had complained that the train just skipped Botanic Garden MRT Station and only stopped at Stevens MRT Station without any announcements made.
It was only at 9.37am, SBS announced that train service will bypass Botanic Garden Station.
Around seven hours after the first announcement made, SBS Transit stated that DTL has resumed normal service.
Throughout the whole disruption, there was no mention of free bridging bus service being provided for affected commuters.
At around 4 pm, SBS Transit wrote a post on its Facebook page, describing the incident which lasted for more than seven hours.
It said that the train services on the Downtown Line (DTL) were delayed this morning due to a signalling-related fault at Botanic Gardens Station, adding that the Platform Screen Doors (PSD), which are controlled by the signalling system, malfunctioned about 5.45am and could not automatically open.
Therefore, staffs had to manually operate the doors whenever a train arrived at the station and this took some time which caused a delay to train services.
In order to enable its engineers to resolve the problem as soon as possible and minimise inconvenience to commuters, a decision was subsequently taken to close the platform at DT9 Botanic Gardens Station for trains heading towards Chinatown.
“With the closure of the platform, train services on the DTL could continue without delay on the Line,” it added.
The train operator then said that the fault was rectified at 12.54pm and the platform opened for passenger service.
“Two doors will, however, remain closed for more in-depth repairs to be conducted during engineering hours tonight,” it added.
SBS Transit said that during normal operations, when a train enters a station, the signalling system will communicate with the train system so that both the PSD and train doors can be automatically opened at the same time for passenger boarding and alighting activities.
However, it noted that it could not be done this morning at the Botanic Gardens Station.
“We apologise to all affected commuters for the inconvenience caused,” it ended.
Ting Ting wrote that she reached Bukit Panjang Station at 7.45am and Promenade station at 9.15am. Meanwhile, on normal days, the journey takes only half an hour.
Many also commented that the train stopped 10 minutes at every station.
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