The queue stretched from the barriers at the control station, where a makeshift booth for job application has been set up, to the pedestrian pathway outside the train station.

There were about 850 people filling up forms or waiting to be interviewed at the station at the roadshow, which started at 9am. The crowd only started to disperse five hours later.

Up for grabs were jobs ranging from customer service officers to assistant engineers. SMRT said two-thirds of the positions, or 120, are for the new Circle Line, which will open five stations on May 30.

Madam Pauline Yong, 40, was at the roadshow at 11am with her husband, but the queue was so long they had to leave halfway to take care of their toddler daughter.

Madam Yong and her husband, both engineers by training, were eyeing the assistant engineers posts.

Her 43-year-old husband, who wanted to be known only as Mr Suan, was retrenched last August and they have been relying on their savings and his retrenchment package to get by.

'We're both unemployed now, but we want to send our daughter to pre-school soon,' said Madam Yong. 'So it's all right even if we have to take a pay cut for the job here.'

An SMRT spokesperson said the next roadshow will most likely be held in two months' time, or when ' there is a sizeable number of positions in the company'.