The massive breakdown three weeks ago of the North-South and East-West MRT lines would no doubt have riled many commuters.

More than 250,000 were affected when trains on Singapore's two longest and most heavily used lines were halted for more than two hours during the evening peak on July 7.

There were several accounts of people not managing to reach home until close to midnight, and some by walking. That it came on the back of a spate of recent major incidents would have knocked the confidence of even the most ardent rail supporters.

In the first quarter of this year , there were five major service disruptions, each lasting more than 30 minutes. These excluded a fire that stopped the Bukit Panjang LRT service for 24 hours.

And that came on the back of 12 such disruptions last year - more than the 11 in 2011, the year that rail breakdowns rippled across the corporate and political spheres.