Thousands of commuters stranded due to MRT breakdown

North-bound train service between Marina Bay and Bishan stations will be closed and will not be up for the rest of the night, SMRT said in a statement on Thursday evening. Preliminary investigations point to about 40m of damaged power rail between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut stations as the cause for the disruption, which affected thousands of commuters during rush-hour traffic. -- ST PHOTO: TAN DAWN WEI

North-bound train service between Marina Bay and Bishan stations will be closed and will not be up for the rest of the night, SMRT said in a statement on Thursday evening.

Preliminary investigations point to about 40m of damaged power rail between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut stations as the cause for the disruption, which affected thousands of commuters during rush-hour traffic.

SMRT added that north-bound services from Ang Mo Kio to Jurong East stations, as well as all south-bound train services are still running. The East-West and Circle Line train services are continuing as normal.

While bridging services were activated at various stations, many commuters saw their journeys home delayed by more than one hour.

Some complained of being stuck in complete darkness, without proper instructions and adequate ventilation. A passenger apparently used a fire extinguisher to break one of the train's windows.

Ms Oh Shu Fen was stuck in a train between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut stations around 6.50pm.

She told The Straits Times: 'We were forced to remain in the train with no useful instructions for at least 40 minutes; other than the usual announcements of apologies for the 'inconveniences caused'. During which, people started to faint and become uncomfortable.'

Ms Oh, 23, said that at least four people fainted in the train.

'It was a very unpleasant experience, there was no lights and ventilation when they were evacuating us out,' she added.

'It got so dark that at one point of time, the only sources of light are handphone lights. We got to walk through the tunnel to Dhoby Ghaut station and it was pretty much a traumatising experience.'

IT support officer Loy Kok Nien, 36, was on his way to his Toa Payoh home from his office in Newton when he was told of the disruption. What is usually a 30-minute trip took more than 2 hours.

'We were told that there would be bridging services to Bishan but all of them are full and so infrequent,' he said, adding that public buses heading towards Toa Payoh were all full.

Thursday's disruption comes just a day after service on the Circle Line was also affected during the morning peak-hour traffic.

SMRT said in a statement on Thursday that its staff were on site attending to the fault.

It added: 'We will work round the clock to repair the damage and hope to get the north-bound train service for this stretch up by Friday morning. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.'

If you were one of those commuters affected by the train disruptions, call The Straits Times' hotline at 63195397 if you would like to give an account of your experiences. Alternately, email your story to stlocal@sph.com.sg with your name and contact number. Do email us pictures you may have taken too, during this time.

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