Train services between Newton and Ang Mo Kio stations on the North-South Line (NSL) are down indefinitely, SMRT said on Sunday (Oct 08), but assured in its latest update that the rain water that flooded the tunnels and crippled operations from Saturday evening is "almost cleared".

The rail operator did not give an exact time as to when services along the affected stretch would resume. SMRT added that its engineering teams was working on cleaning, replacing and testing trackside equipment to allow services to reopen, as teams from several agencies including the Singapore Civil Defence Force, the Land Transport Authority and the Public Utilities Board worked overnight to drain the water from the tunnels.

"We are working towards full resumption of North-South Line train services as quickly as possible," SMRT said its latest update at 10.09am on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, SMRT said it needed more time to clear water from the tunnels and could not re-open services between Newton and Ang Mo Kio stations at 9am as it had hoped to do initially.

This weekend's transport chaos began around 5:33pm on Saturday, when SMRT halted train services between Bishan and Toa Payoh MRT stations "as a precaution" due to flooding in the tunnel from Bishan to Braddell MRT stations, following a heavy downpour. In a separate incident, a small fire on the trackside in the tunnel between Marina Bay and Raffles Place MRT stations was also reported, though the flames later died out on its own.

The tunnel was reportedly flooded despite flood prevention measures having been improved recently. Currently, flood barriers at 35 underground MRT stations have been completed across the network.

SMRT had said in an earlier update at about 6am on Sunday that it had hoped to resume services by 9am.

It added: "Engineering teams from SMRT and the Land Transport Authority worked through the night to remove water from the tunnels between Bishan to Braddell MRT stations and checked trackside equipment. Additional time is needed for final checks and to conduct test runs with trains before resuming passenger service."

Meanwhile, free bus and bridging bus services are available for commuters travelling from Newton to Ang Mo Kio stations. SMRT said it has also stationed additional staff at the bus boarding points at Newton, Novena, Toa Payoh, Braddell, Bishan and Ang Mo Kio to assist commuters.

Train services on the NSL from Jurong East to Ang Mo Kio, and from Newton to Marina South Pier stations in both directions are unaffected, SMRT added.

The current disruption is possibly the widest outage since December 2011, when over 200,000 commuters were affected by a major service disruption along the NSL over two days.

On Dec 15 that year, an estimated 127,000 commuters were affected by a major service disruption along the NSL from Marina Bay station to Braddell station.

At that time four trains stalled because of a misalignment between the train’s current collector shoes and the power rail, also known as the third rail. The trains draw locomotive power from the third rail through the train current collector shoes. As there was a misalignment, the trains were unable to draw power and thus stalled.

Two days later, another service disruption took place on the same line during the morning and affected about 94,000 commuters. During this disruption, five trains stalled after encountering similar mechanical problems.

SMRT was only able to resume service around noon a day later.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by TODAY ONLINE

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