SINGAPORE - A traction power fault on the Bukit Panjang LRT line caused a delay in travelling time from Choa Chu Kang to Bukit Panjang stations on Wednesday evening.

The fault was traced to a current collector shoe on the train, which draws electricity from the power rail to run the train.

Transport operator SMRT announced the delay in a post on Twitter at about 8.50pm, some 10 minutes after declaring that train services on the line had resumed after an earlier delay. The delay stands at 10 minutes as at 9pm.

SMRT said that shuttle train services between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang stations were available earlier due to a power trip between Choa Chu Kang and Keat Hong stations, at about 7.50pm. There are four stations – South View, Keat Hong, Teck Whye and Phoenix – between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang. The seven-station loop service from Senja to Petir was not affected.

“This (the power trip) caused a train to stall between Choa Chu Kang and South View stations. All commuters were safely transferred to another train to continue their journey to South View station,” said SMRT on Facebook late on Wednesday night.

It added that in-train and station announcements were made to inform commuters of a delay in train services, while SMRT staff were deployed to facilitate service recovery.

“We are sorry to have affected Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang residents’ evening commute,” the statement added.

That disruption lasted for about 20 minutes, according to SMRT’s Twitter posts.

SMRT said on Thursday morning that all Bukit Panjang LRT services were running normally again. It added that it would improve the design and material of the collector shoe as part of its LRT renewal process.

This is the first interruption on the Bukit Panjang LRT line since November 2022. Then, a traction power fault halted train service between Fajar and Bangkit stations for a few minutes at about 5.30am.