Commuters frustrated by lack of reliability

Commuters frustrated by lack of reliability

THE Bukit Panjang LRT Line, which opened in 1999, had 50 disruptions in its first three years of operations
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Over the years, the line's lack of reliability has been a source of frustration for commuters. In the first nine months of last year, there were 59 incidents of delays.

Here is a list of the system's major disruptions:

Nov 19, 2000: A moving train rammed into a stationary train at Phoenix station, injuring three passengers. Operator SMRT was fined $10,000 for the accident, caused by an employee overriding a safety warning.

Oct 21, 2002: About 900m of track was damaged, after a wheel fell off a train. It took about five days for services to resume. SMRT was fined $10,000.

May 12, 2004: Services were down for four hours, following a series of power trips.

Nov 30, 2010: A power fault resulted in a two-hour disruption, affecting some 5,000 commuters. Four trains stalled and 88 passengers were forced to walk up to 300m to the nearest stations.

April 22, 2012: Due to a stalled train, 11 passengers had to walk on the tracks to Senja station. Train services took about 21/2 hours to fully resume.

April 2, 2013: Forty passengers had to walk from a stalled train to the nearby Phoenix station, due to a power trip which disrupted services for more than an hour.

July 4, 2013: Human error resulted in a a stalled train blocking the depot exit routes. SMRT was fined $60,000 for launching a train on the wrong route and delaying train service.

Feb 24, 2015: A power and signal collecting assembly of a train got dislodged, hitting a signal rail and causing a power trip, resulting in an hour-long delay.

The Straits Times / Top of The News           Published on 11 March, 2015                      

By Adrian Lim