Train Breakdown Again!!!

Just within 2 days, the Circle Line and the North Bound Train has broken down one after another. However, yesterday's SMRT train breakdown must be one of the worse in 24years that took more than 5hrs to resolve (from 6:55pm - 11:40pm)

The disruption is supposingly caused by a damaged third rail between Dhoby Ghaut and City Hall MRT stations. The faulty third rail damaged the collector shoes of four trains, which caused all of them to stall:
- One train at Braddell station
- One train before Orchard station
- Two trains at Dhoby Ghaut station

Hundred of thousands commuters were stranded at Orchard MRT station and other Marina Bay-bound stations. Many passengers were trapped in the train, and eventually someone resort to smashing one of the cabin windows with a fire extinguisher to allow ventilation.

I wasn't really affected by the train service disruption but was dismay by the fact that when I reached Somerset MRT around near 7pm, I saw this flashing message, but when I was about to head home, I saw the same message still flashing. It is only when I shared the photo on Facebook that I started to gather what has happened actually. And some has shared that their fellow colleagues/ friends are stuck at the train the station for near 1 hour+ before informed by the train station staff that the train service is not available!

Then when I head towards Raffles Place MRT from City Hall MRT, the train stopped twice in the tunnel and I start to wonder if I need to expect myself to be the next victim to be trapped in the tunnel. Thank God, I did not... When I reached Raffles Place MRT I realised it was in a Chaotic. Everyone showing a blur face that the train isn't stopping at the usual platform and some are still confused and unsure of whether their intended journey path is affected.

When I got home, I saw this Facebook post of outrageous "Income Opportunity" Alert by SMRT to their affiliate SMRT taxi fleet. Instead of showing empathy towards the affected commuters, they jump on the fact this is an opportunity for earning income!


From the way SMRT handle the whole incident, I personally find there is insufficient transparency on communicating to the commuters on what's had happened which is happening all this while whenever there is a train breakdown. And this is an obvious case of lack of contigency plan. And making it worse, the "income opportunity" alerts and staff being angered for disruption of service not being their fault, truly shows a lack in empathy and staff training.



** pic1 is photo shared from twitter (source unknown)

** pic2 is snapshot using my mobile phone camera

** pic3 is photo originates from Mr Loh Boon Teo

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