North South MRT Breakdown
 

SINGAPORE - Train service between Ang Mo Kio and Newton resumed on Sunday (Oct 8) afternoon, nearly 21 hours after services on the North-South Line (NSL) were disrupted due to flooding in the tunnel along some stations.

Train operator SMRT, in an update on Facebook at 1.52pm on Sunday, said the resumption follows an "all-out, overnight effort" to clear water in the tunnels between Bishan and Braddell stations.

SMRT said it worked with teams from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), PUB and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to pump out water from the tunnels.

Teams from SMRT and LTA also conducted network-wide checks on MRT tunnels, it added.

In a separate update, the SCDF said it received a call for assistance from SMRT at 7.07pm on Saturday. It completed its operations to pump out water from the tunnels at about 11am on Sunday. The SCDF also posted on its Facebook pictures showing the flooded tunnel.

The train service disruption was first reported at about 5.30pm on Saturday after water entered the tunnel from Bishan to Braddell during the afternoon's torrential rain.

A a result, train service on a large stretch of the NSL from Ang Mo Kio to Marina South Pier came to a halt. Thousands of commuters were affected, and while much of the train service was eventually restored, the two-way service between Newton and Ang Mo Kio was disrupted for the rest of Saturday.

SMRT had hoped to restore train services by Sunday morning but it said later that more time was needed to clear the flooded tunnel.

Then at 10.09am on Sunday, SMRT issued an update to say that its engineering teams were working on cleaning, replacing and testing trackside equipment. "We are working towards full resumption of North-South Line train services as quickly as possible," the rail operator said in that update.

Despite the updates, some commuters turned up early on Sunday to take the train.

When The Straits Times visited Bishan MRT station at around 7.30am, about 30 commuters were seen queuing for the bridging bus service at the bus stop outside the station. SMRT staff were present to guide them.

One such commuter was Ms Ho, 71, who works in the service industry. She boarded a bridging bus to Newton at about 7.50am.

"I'm on my way to Tiong Bahru for work and it's a bit inconvenient... I didn't know that the trains still weren't working today," she told ST.

Mr Alvin Chong, 53, who is self-employed, had to take a bridging bus from Bishan to Newton so he could attend a church service in Orchard on Sunday morning.

He also had to take a bus from Beach Road to Buona Vista on Saturday while out with friends because of the breakdown. "You get more frustrated as you experience more (of the disruptions)," he added.

While there have been previous cases of water entering MRT tunnels, this is believed to be the first time it has affected train services.

In 2006, heavy rain in the morning left the Novena station with waterlogged floors and a dripping ceiling. The water, which rose to a height of 5cm, seemed to have come from a nearby construction site.

SMRT on Saturday declined to comment on the extent of the problem, but MRT tunnels are equipped with pumps which are supposed to kick in when water enters the tunnels.
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Now the question is why the pumps are not working? Are they periodically maintained and tested etc etc

So many "reasons".
Train stops, mgmt, ministers run, (fired),.. its that simple
train stops so often already, obviously those in charge cant do the job.
Get others who can la...

Any other countries they wld have gotten the sack already
uniquely singapore

As if there's no corporate management and no transport ministry.

Nobody's home!

Million dollar CEO very quiet. No press conference to inform update through out the whole weekend.

Uber drivers curse n swear.... no dynamic pricing. Not supportive of exorbitant surge pricing but

i saw 2 big ceiling fans at the Pending LRT station which is open air, the platform is small too, is it necessary to spend this kind of money, i rather they spend on better quality trains and servicing..:rolleyes:

What to do??

Normal Taxi drivers also dont appear to have advantage

Experts call for more measures after North-South Line MRT disruption
 

Transport experts have called for more measures to be taken to prevent a repeat of a nearly 21-hour disruption of North-South Line train services over the weekend, one of the worst here since 2011.

A malfunction in a water pumping system had caused flooding in the MRT tunnels, which contributed to the disruption.

Experts said more checks and having a back-up system could prevent a repeat of the incident.

Thousands of commuters on a 13-station stretch of the North-South Line, from Ang Mo Kio to Marina South Pier, had to delay their plans or make alternative travel arrangements when services were affected for more than four hours on Saturday night.

The disruption stretched further yesterday, when services between Ang Mo Kio and Newton stations remained down before they were restored at 1.50pm.

In a statement yesterday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said preliminary investigations showed that water had entered the tunnels between Bishan and Braddell stations through a portal opening near Bishan MRT station - where above-ground rail tracks transit underground - after a torrential downpour on Saturday afternoon.

MRT tunnels are equipped with pumps, which are supposed to kick in when water enters.

Under normal circumstances, rainwater run-off accumulated in the adjacent storm water sump pit - a hole designed to collect water - would have been siphoned off by a system of pumps, said the LTA.

But on Saturday, the water pumping system did not work, causing rainwater to overflow from the storm water sump pit into the tunnel opening and accumulate at the lowest point of the Bishan and Braddell stretch of the tunnel.

SMRT immediately deactivated the trackside power supply as a safety measure, and the pump system has since been repaired.

Detailed investigations into the cause of the disruption are ongoing, said the LTA.

The disruption on Saturday was made worse by another incident - a trackside fire between Marina Bay and Raffles Place stations that later went out by itself.

The LTA said the fire was unrelated to the earlier incident, and it is investigating its cause.

National University of Singapore professor Lee Der Horng, who specialises in transportation systems, said the weekend disruption "could have been avoided".

He said the malfunction could be due to insufficient maintenance or testing of the water pumping system, adding: "SMRT should identify critical systems and should have redundancy in place, so if the first-line equipment fails for whatever reason, the back-up system can just kick in."

Singapore Institute of Technology assistant professor Zhou Yi suggested that SMRT consider first installing back-up pumping systems at the transit areas between the underground and overground sections of the tunnel, subject to conditions and cost limits, to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

He added that the frequency of checks on the pumping and underground drainage systems may need to be stepped up during the rainy season.

"However, it is good to see that the buses were arranged effectively... It is also good to see the joint effort from various parties, including LTA, SMRT, PUB and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)," he said.

Train operator SMRT, in an update on Facebook at 1.52pm yesterday, said the resumption of train services followed an "all-out, overnight effort" to clear water in the tunnels between Bishan and Braddell stations.

SMRT said it worked with teams from SCDF, national water agency PUB and LTA to pump out water from the tunnels, an operation that SCDF said was completed at around 11am yesterday.

Affected trackside equipment was inspected, cleaned, replaced and tested before passenger services resumed. Checks were also conducted on other tunnel portal pump systems located throughout the North-South and East-West lines, said the LTA.

When The Straits Times visited Bishan MRT station at around 7.30am yesterday, about 30 commuters were seen queueing for the bridging bus service at the bus stop outside the station. SMRT staff were present to guide them.

One of the commuters, Mr Alvin Chong, 53, had to take a bridging bus from Bishan to Newton.

Mr Chong, who is self-employed, had already been affected by the breakdown on Saturday while out with friends - he ended up taking a bus from Beach Road to Buona Vista.

"You get more frustrated as you experience more (of the disruptions)," he said.

each time it floods, they scoop the water
never ever going to be able to fix the leak