Massive crowds of commuters along the EWL due to track fault on Friday morning

Another train delay occurred this Friday morning (15 March), again along the East West Line (EWL), this time caused by a track fault at Clementi.

Without any prior information (on Tweeter or Facebook posts), transport operator SMRT tweeted an ‘update’ at 5:59am that there was no train service between Jurong East and Queenstown due to a track fault at Clementi:

[EWL] UPDATE: Due to Track fault at #Clementi. No train svc btwn #JurongEast and #Queenstown. Free regular bus service is available between #Jurong East and #Queentown. We are working to recover svc.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 14, 2019

Commuters posted many complains and questions on the Twitter platform; the first started at 5:59am:

https://twitter.com/_jvnise/status/1106313905104576512

Wtf smrt?? Yall keep closing stations early / opening station late to do dk what track maintenance…SO WHY ARE TRACK FAULTS STILL SO FREAKING COMMON HUH

— 🍃🌸 (@jjaenwoong) March 14, 2019

At 6:29 SMRT tweeted the same update, now asking for 30 minutes additional travel time between Jurong East and Queenstown:

[EWL] UPDATE:: Due to a track fault, pls add 30mins traveling time btwn #JurongEast and #Queentown. Free regular bus and free bus bridging services are available between #Jurong East and #Queentown.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 14, 2019

Other commuters posted their tweets to SMRT, with many asking where were the free bus bridging service:

https://twitter.com/sheosha15608770/status/1106323992049180672

Charge me $0.83 just by tap in n out waste of time still cheat money

— MrRebelz | $PIXIZ (@MrRebelz) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/davinadelaure/status/1106326301449707520

My son is affected to go to School. Somemore bus 51 that he needs to take is full and cannot get on.
Being proud is one thing but must compromise and contact the friendly neighboring country for assidtance. i.e. JAPAN: JR

— Greg Kobayashi (@kobayashi_greg) March 14, 2019

Didn’t see any bus bridging service available ,, gotta spend $30 take grab

— Jen (@Jen75222124) March 14, 2019

Lester Lee tweeted at 6:59am that the delay along EWL was in both directions:

Train delay along EW line in both directions. No announcements made. The "4 mins" is a lie. Not counting down. @SMRT_Singapore What are you doing about this? Like for us RIGHT NOW? pic.twitter.com/9mW9zfcySi

— Lester Lee 八神 令 (@celexter) March 14, 2019

At 7:03 SMRT cleared the fault; it tweeted that train services on the EWL have resumed, trains are progressively returning back to normal speed.

[EWL] CLEARED: Train services on the EWL have resumed. Trains are progressively returning back to normal speed. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 14, 2019

But passengers’ complains were still coming on afterward:

No shuttle buses available until now

— Dev (@Devanath_Ragu) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/refined_suga/status/1106330533670195201

the day i decide to go to work myself so i dont have to wake my dad up, smrt plays me like a fool lmao im dying

— Licai. (@liciacheong) March 14, 2019

At 7:10 SMRT, despite its earlier tweet, updated again that due to a track fault traveling time between Jurong East and Queenstown need 30 minutes additional time still:

UPDATE:: Due to a track fault, pls add 30mins traveling time btwn #JurongEast and #Queenstown. Free regular bus and free bus bridging services are available between #Jurong East and #Queenstown. Passengers may seek an alternative route to travel..

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 14, 2019

Jihrish Sardido shared a photo showing large crowd at Clementi at 7:11am:

Look at this amount of people waiting in Clementi for the bus ride. They still wont allow us to take the train. pic.twitter.com/707kJpiKSp

— Jihrish Sardido (@jihrishsardido) March 14, 2019

And other passengers still posted their tweets:

One SMRT train didn’t stop at Bedok MRT station and drive thru.

— Lee CS (@leecs0123) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/Bamirciaga/status/1106333141709385728

https://twitter.com/d0ublexs/status/1106333189625135106

https://twitter.com/kittyowlye/status/1106333648616218625

Jihrish Sardido shared another photo and other commuters also still posted their information and complains:

There is not enough bus for everybody. I’m totally late for work because of this. pic.twitter.com/5aTLEJbXgg

— Jihrish Sardido (@jihrishsardido) March 14, 2019

@SMRT_Singapore Already told you, your officers are not cabdble to do work. Better handover SMRT to other operator. pic.twitter.com/w9pGNZKW31

— செங்குளவி (@Stupid82176832) March 14, 2019

Liars. It's not cleared. It's packed at jurong east mrt. Pple avoid if u can

— Choon Hoong Chng (@Chngchoonhoong) March 14, 2019

train not moving at dover, update pls so i can show my cher or i late today gg

— Isaac Thow  (@IsaacThow) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/MasterPremanon/status/1106335618181660672

https://twitter.com/zyan2528/status/1106335671285747712

In jurong east mrt now pic.twitter.com/KdUlyz33bX

— Ruzaiman Jamil (@theplayaz) March 14, 2019

Pls do not speak to close to the mic. We cannot grasp what u are trying to say. Pls speak clearly.

— Ud72 (@YudiRais) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/Markhala/status/1106337098674524160

No train from lakeside 7:33am

— Sett Paing (@settpaing) March 14, 2019

Lakeside station same situation, can't tap in. Been asked to take bus…

— mi3jason (@mi3jason) March 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/gofuxkyoself/status/1106339038443638784

https://twitter.com/rainseesg/status/1106339072476241920

You don't even have enough staff to answer passanger queries.

— ジョヴ ❤️ (@jovujov) March 14, 2019

Oblivious to commuters distress SMRT tweeted the fault was cleared (again), but travel time still need additional 30 minutes, at 7:40am

[EWL] UPDATE: Fault cleared, and train svcs are progressively being restored. Pls add 30mins train travel time btwn #JurongEast and #Queenstown.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) March 14, 2019

And tweets from passengers were still coming on the platform:

lakeside 7:41am pic.twitter.com/vbmEUQ8AVt

— Sett Paing (@settpaing) March 14, 2019

Sure not? Later 5 mins later fault again

— ジョヴ ❤️ (@jovujov) March 14, 2019

#smrt kiddos and adulty are waiting very long eh.. pls improve pic.twitter.com/dZJHwzQDAx

— jerome (@jeromekjq) March 14, 2019

45mins after this announcement the train speed is still not returning to normal speed. Totally disappointing and misleading!

— Littlefish22 (@Littlefish221) March 14, 2019

Please add 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes announced by SMRT https://t.co/EeVcIjhU7g

— Sean Goh (@gcssean) March 15, 2019

There is currently a huge jam of buses outside Jurong East MRT bus interchange due to the track fault! Commuters were asked to alight from buses and walk to the station! @LTAtrafficnews @LTAsg @SMRT_Delays @SMRT_Singapore

— Canvas of Tweets (@canvasoftweets) March 15, 2019

There were many more tweets posted by commuters, too many to be reported here; the last one TOC caught was from Jihrish Sardido at 12:30pm:

Ask them. Hahaha. I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ all i know is i came late at work today. Hahahahha

— Jihrish Sardido (@jihrishsardido) March 15, 2019

TATA SMRT Facebook also reported the incident, there were many posts from the Admin and passengers, TOC only reported some of them here:

Wayne Chew wrote at 6:01am: “No train Svc between Queenstown and Jurong east due to track fault at Clementi Train Svc has resumed but add 30 mins travelling time.”

Alan Charles Yap (Admin) wrote at 7:17am: “Kindly disregard the fault cleared message. Train delay between JUR & QUE is still ongoing.”

Tommy Soon wrote at 7:28am: “Anybody living jurong west area? I working in the east. Can share grab.”

Shirley Woon posted on 7:33am: “Normal buses along commonwealth heading towards town also affected. All buses are crowded, cannot board. I am stuck at Ghim Moh.”