MRT services on NSEWL back to normal after delays due to derailed engineering vehicle

SINGAPORE - Passengers on the North-South and East-West MRT lines had to add up to 20 minutes to their morning commutes on Feb 7 after an engineering vehicle derailed at Bishan Depot.

Train journeys during the evening peak period on Feb 7 were also briefly affected, with longer intervals between trains on the two rail lines.

After more than 12 hours, engineers and technicians from rail operator SMRT were able to clear the tracks at the depot at 6.36pm. Normal train services have resumed, SMRT said at 7.20pm.

SMRT had confirmed at about 2.05pm that a wagon being towed by the affected engineering vehicle had gone off the tracks at Bishan Depot. This happened at about 5.15am, while the vehicle was returning to the depot after regular maintenance works in the early hours of Feb 7.

The derailed vehicle blocked a key crossing, preventing trains serving the North-South Line (NSL) from leaving the depot.

Trains from other depots had to be redirected from the East-West Line (EWL) to support the NSL, resulting in the intervals between trains on both rail lines being temporarily raised to up to five minutes in the morning.

The typical frequency during the peak hours of 7am to 9am is one train every two to three minutes.

At 4.27pm, SMRT warned of longer intervals between trains of about 3½ minutes during the evening peak hours on the two lines, advising passengers to use other MRT lines or modes of transport.

Train services during off-peak hours were unaffected, it later added.

While SMRT said its staff and engineers had worked tirelessly to recover the derailed engineering vehicle, the operation took longer because the space around the tracks was too tight for a heavy lifting crane.

Instead, a hydraulic jack had to be used to shift the derailed wagon “inch by inch” onto another track at the depot.

It said it will continue investigating what caused the engineering vehicle to fail.

At Ang Mo Kio station at 6pm, The Straits Times observed large crowds on the platform for trains travelling towards Jurong East station, with some passengers unable to board.

Similarly, there were long queues for NSL services at Newton station at 6.40pm, with trains arriving every four minutes or so. Despite that, passengers could board the first train that arrived.

Some affected passengers voiced frustration, while others took the inconvenience in their stride.

Administrative worker Jesserine Kam, 58, was put off by the longer waits at Newton station, since she was already running late.

She added: “It means more crowds and people squeezing together during peak hour. And especially with more people squeezing onto the train, it will be very hot.”

Mr Dileep Wijewardena, however, did not consider the wait of four minutes for a train from Dhoby Ghaut to Orchard much of a delay.

While acknowledging that it is best for trains to arrive on time, the tutor in his late 30s said: “Sometimes, things like this happen, so it’s not a big deal.”

SMRT first posted about the delays on the NSL at 5.52am, advising travellers to add 20 minutes to their travelling time between Ang Mo Kio and Jurong East stations.

This was later revised to 10 minutes, and reduced to five minutes at 7.27am. In an update at 9.30am, SMRT said train services on both lines had returned to normal.

Free regular bus and bridging bus services, made available between Bishan and Woodlands, stopped by 9.30am.

SMRT initially attributed the delays to a fault with the affected engineering vehicle, which it said broke down at one of the crossings at Bishan Depot.

There was no mention of a derailment in the initial posts.

Images taken by ST later showed the derailed wagon at Bishan Depot being surrounded by personnel decked in orange safety vests.

Associate Professor Andrew Ng from the Singapore Institute of Technology’s engineering cluster, who researches railway technologies, pointed to several potential reasons why a rail engineering vehicle may get derailed.

These could include issues with the vehicle or wagon, track defects, improper operation of the vehicle, as well as bad environmental and weather conditions.

According to the images, as well as others posted online, the engineering vehicle in question is a China-made Deli diesel locomotive that propels maintenance wagons and other machinery.

SMRT said the vehicle was carrying replacement rails from maintenance work done in the early morning.

Typically operated by two SMRT staff, these Deli locomotives each weigh 56 tonnes and can haul up to 240 tonnes. The derailed vehicle is one of the first-generation models, which were introduced here in 1994.

While this is the second time a derailment has affected MRT services after a major EWL disruption in September 2024, SMRT said in its Facebook post on Feb 7 that the two incidents are “completely different”. It noted that train services on the NSL and EWL had continued throughout the day this time round.

In the September 2024 incident, an axle box – a component on a train’s undercarriage – had fallen off a passenger train that was being driven back to Ulu Pandan Depot after developing a fault near Clementi station.

This caused the wheels of a bogie, or undercarriage, to derail. Despite this, the train continued travelling for a few minutes, leaving a 2.55km-long trail of destruction in its wake.

That incident crippled a stretch of the EWL for six days from Sept 25 to 30, making it one of the worst breakdowns in the 37-year history of Singapore’s MRT system.

More recently, on Jan 10, passengers travelling between Marina South Pier and Bishan MRT stations had their journeys

delayed due to a stalled train

on the NSL at peak hour.

The disruption was caused by a northbound train that stalled near Orchard station at 5.40pm, SMRT said then.