Downtown Line doors fixed, but cause of glitch still unknown: SBS Transit

SBS Transit staff gather at the faulty platform doors at Botanic Gardens MRT station along the Downtown Line on May 3, 2017. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - The last malfunctioning door on the Downtown Line's Botanic Gardens station has been fixed. But the cause of the glitch has not been determined yet.

Operator SBS Transit said on a Facebook post on Friday (May 5) that it was "looking into the cause of the incident" with the Land Transport Authority.

"We deeply apologise for the inconvenience caused," said the company, a subsidiary of transport giant ComfortDelGro Corp.

An LTA spokesman said: "The cause of the incident has not been ascertained and will require further investigation."

The glitch was discovered at 5.45am on Wednesday. Suspected to be a short circuit, it rendered the doors inoperable when trains pulled in. Station staff had to open and close them manually, by pushing a button. This caused a slowdown, which led to crowd building up during the morning peak along the whole line.

At around 9.40am, SBS Transit decided to have trains bypass Botanic Gardens to fix the problem. Four hours later, it managed to fix all but two doors. One was fixed on Thursday, and the last one, before service started on Friday.

The doors on the Downtown Line were supplied by Faiveley Transport, a French company which has an engineering joint venture with SMRT Corp. The company does not supply doors to any other rail line here.

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