Now I’m Afraid to Take the Train

I spoke too soon. I was just praising our train system. Well it’s still great, except for issues like what just happened. You see I am extremely claustrophobic, so that’s the reason why a delay like this scares the heck out of me.

an electrical fault caused the major train delay that left 17,500 passengers stranded along the East-West line during peak hour traffic on Thursday morning.

I feel so sorry for the two passengers who suffered due to the delay in the congested train. To me it sounds like a nightmare.

During the delay, two passengers near Tiong Bahru station felt unwell and had to be sent to Singapore General Hospital.
According to a SCDF spokesperson, a man in his 50s felt giddy and a woman in her 30s experienced breathlessness and chest discomfort.

Channel News Asia also reports on how thousands were affected:

The breakdown happened between Tiong Bahru and Outram Park MRT stations, and preliminary findings show it was due to an electrical fault in the train.

Many commuters had to find other ways to get to work as a result of the breakdown.

One of them was 38-year-old T B Lim. He had boarded the train at Dover Station, and was heading to Outram Park Station to change to the North-East Line. He described how he had to wait for 20 to 30 minutes before the train moved off from Dover Station, and even then, the train kept stopping intermittently.

In the end, Mr Lim alighted at Commonwealth Station and took a bus to work instead.

He feels the situation could have been better managed.

He said: “There was an announcement that the train would be delayed for 10 minutes, but every 10 minutes, they repeated the announcement…People have wasted so many 10 minutes because they cannot decide what to do next.”

Agreeing, another commuter, Unnamalai Meyyappan, said: “The announcements were not clear enough. They shouldn’t get the passengers to get panicked. They should tell you clearly what was happening.”

I hate to point out black dots on a white wall, but I sincerely hope this will lead to measures to ensure this does not happen again.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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6 Responses to Now I’m Afraid to Take the Train

  1. notabilia says:

    This used to happen in NYC all the time. (Or maybe I just ended up on lousy trains.) Everything will break down at some point and nothing is perfect. Does this happen often?

    • bookjunkie says:

      It happens rarely but when it does we’re shocked as Singapore usually runs like clockwork. That’s why there was a huge uproar over the recent floods.

      • notabilia says:

        If it happens so rarely, shouldn’t you be thankful? I am SO thankful re: SMRT. It’s head and shoulders above anything else anywhere else in the world.

        • bookjunkie says:

          that’s good to hear….just some of the things I take for granted here till I experience something worse.

          I was also super impressed by the tram system in Adelaide.

  2. Al says:

    Having lived in Japan for many many years before moving to Kuala Lumpur, I get easily upset by notorious late trains in KL (That was a few years ago. The public transport system has improved dramatically in KL since then). And, when I visited Singapore again in 2009, I was simply blown away by SMRT’s efficiency.

    I think like how I’ve come to depend on Japan Railway (JR)’s efficiency, I do understand how it feels when trains run late. People get nervous and irritated. Some time ago, I finished a meeting late, it was peak hour and needed to run to the airport. It was raining very heavily, and I couldn’t get a cab…. the system in Tanjong Pagar station repeatedly blared announcements that the train would be late first for 5 minutes, the next announcement said 10, and the third announcement said another 10. I saw the crowd building up, and I almost wanted to cry…

    Nonetheless, on my recent vacation, everything works perfectly. I must say, regardless of what happened, it is still world class 🙂

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