7 hours of train service disruption; Traffic chaos along East West Line on Wednesday morning
A massive train disruption took place this morning along the East West Line (EWL) due to a track point fault at Clementi, which started at about 7am and ended around 1.50pm in the afternoon. The disruption and confusion of free shuttle buses left passengers confused and angry, who then posted a barrage of posts and tweets on the social media platforms to voice their displease and to highlight the chaos ensued from the breakdown.
On TATA SMRT Facebook platform posts from commuters stuck at Queens Town and Jurong East have started since about 7am:
Renfred Wang wrote at 7:07am: "SMRT no announcement on EWL delay. Stuck at Queens Town towards Tuas for 10 mins now."
CoLieen Lim posted a photo at 7:14am: "Situation at Jurong East station. 7:15am."
WB LM wrote at 7:15am: "[EWL]: Due to a track point fault at Clementi, train service between Jurong East and Clementi will be delayed for 30mins. Free regular bus service is available between JurongEast and Queenstown."
John Robert Lee wrote that the announcement warns train service between JE and Clementi would be delayed for 30 minutes:John Robert Lee shared a post from MRT Singapore Service Information at 7:22am; he wrote: "Yesterday, you have PSD Failure at JE because of pax try to force open the faulty PSD. Today, you have track point failure between JE and Clementi. Don't know what’s going on but... Service between JE and Clementi will be Delayed for 30 mins and free bus services operations are available between Boon Lay And Queenstown. Do seek alternative transport if you can!"
And other passengers also posted other information on the Facebook page:Briggs Cudal wrote at 7:24am: "Green line train Pasir Ris until Queens Town only."
Swee Thian Sim wrote at 7:43am: "No train service on East West line."
Nur Azlinawaty said the additional travel time needed was not 30 minutes but 45 minutes for the passengers from both the Western and Eastern regions:Nur Azlinawaty Abdul Rahman wrote at 8:09am: "Passengers on E-W Line should add 45 mins to their travel, not the supposed 30 mins. This applies not just for those in the West. The Easterners too."
On the Twitter platform commuters also shared information and their disappointment over the train service disruption:https://twitter.com/fv4rishh/status/1042188757640728576
https://twitter.com/bhuvyxo/status/1042189177591226368
At 7:10am and 7:14am SMRT tweeted its official announcements about the EWL train delay that would be for 30 minutes, free regular bus services were said to be available:
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042189236445765632
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042190130163867649
But at 7:21am minerva tweeted that the trains at Tampines have been jammed for almost 30 minutes:
https://twitter.com/minerva90803491/status/1042191821600841728
Other commuters continued to ask questions and voice their complaints about the delay on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Wen_Kai_/status/1042191825983819776
https://twitter.com/oink1010/status/1042190934933364736
https://twitter.com/taesumism/status/1042192077897920512
https://twitter.com/_srnsj/status/1042192855266091009
https://twitter.com/MN3027/status/1042192872563388416
https://twitter.com/agentm98/status/1042192923196964864
While SMRT kept tweeting announcement to update the passengers but the problems seemed to have gone from bad to worse, from 30 minutes of additional travel time at 8:15am to 40 minutes:
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042193167603228672
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042196699995729920
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042205410587865088
Passengers were confused and complained about the free bus services; some said that the 'free' bus service was a lie:
https://twitter.com/shula25K/status/1042199618300215296
https://twitter.com/sarahdonov/status/1042200161110224896
https://twitter.com/GraceTa04141272/status/1042201132209061888
https://twitter.com/prancingthrough/status/1042205313967915008
https://twitter.com/_gloomyybear_/status/1042207340315865088
https://twitter.com/harryadammitch/status/1042208655993581569
https://twitter.com/petikool/status/1042210013052252160
https://twitter.com/Jaslynzxc/status/1042210332108763136
https://twitter.com/MasterPremanon/status/1042215448706609152
Syazana Lopez gave a solution to get the free bus service:
https://twitter.com/TheBlazerGirl/status/1042212272674729984
There were also confusions caused by the announcements and notifications given by the SMRT about the locations and delay times:
https://twitter.com/choomei_ong/status/1042200636693995520
https://twitter.com/kh2ouija/status/1042200814150807552
https://twitter.com/smurfvillesux/status/1042202781765910529
https://twitter.com/ElKiewAKAbowNz/status/1042207672282435589
https://twitter.com/canvasoftweets/status/1042211148441874432
https://twitter.com/ShirLs_B/status/1042228692586397696
https://twitter.com/justgloww/status/1042229785391329280
And there were also many tweets from commuters asking whether they could ask for refund:
https://twitter.com/DeludedVigz/status/1042194274178162688
https://twitter.com/Foodie_TL/status/1042199991433945088
https://twitter.com/hammiedevil/status/1042200150104408066
Other passengers posted photos and information of the long delay:
https://twitter.com/ChaceMao/status/1042201376938323968
https://twitter.com/brian_teo/status/1042201871388037120
Julia wrote that train doors closed while there were still spaces on the train and it left the Clementi Station before people could board :
https://twitter.com/LaiKhaing/status/1042215870892716032
The day almost reached 11 am already but the train disruptions were still not cleared:
https://twitter.com/mdzulkar9/status/1042242727490936832
https://twitter.com/LOVETTEMZAKI/status/1042243028155396096
https://twitter.com/batkdz/status/1042244001045209088
https://twitter.com/Wazzyx07/status/1042245267423019008
It was only till 1.50pm that the train services have been said to be resumed back to normal operations.
https://twitter.com/SMRT_Singapore/status/1042289685391798273
