SPLRT disruption: 28km of cables to be tested during off-service hours; works to end by Aug 23

SINGAPORE - Around 28km of cables in the Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT) network will be tested during engineering hours, with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SBS Transit expecting works to be completed by Aug 23.

This comes after a power cable fault between Farmway and Kupang stations

caused a four-hour outage across all 29 stations

in the network on Aug 15, the second time in four days the LRT system was hit by a power fault.

The back-up power supply failed to kick in on Aug 15 because of an electrical switchboard that was damaged in the

earlier outage on Aug 12

, which also affected the entire SPLRT network, as well as parts of the North East MRT line (NEL).

Repairs to the switchboard and its faulty voltage transformer were completed on Aug 16. The switchboard distributes power from electric sources to several smaller circuits, while the voltage transformer converts high voltage to a lower, safer level.

LTA will implement a secondary power supply source directly from SP Power Grid by the fourth quarter of 2025 as part of Sengkang Depot expansion works, the authority and operator SBS Transit said in a joint statement on the night of Aug 16.

LTA will also work with SBS Transit to further upgrade the power supply for the NEL and SPLRT, according to the joint statement.

The Aug 12 outage affected the entire SPLRT system, as well as the stretch of the NEL between Farrer Park and Punggol Coast stations. Train services on the NEL were disrupted for three hours, while the LRT system resumed full service after 10 hours.

The disruption happened after an electrical switchboard became damaged at the Sengkang Depot substation, while another switchboard there was disconnected as a result to avoid damage. Both switchboards are interconnected and serve as backups to each other.

The switchboard was damaged after a fault in its voltage transformer resulted in a high current surge while a cable connected to the transformer was dislodged.

“In a normal situation, the first fault would have triggered the fuse in the voltage transformer and cut off electric current,” LTA and SBS Transit said in the Aug 16 statement.

“However, in this situation, the dislodged cable came into contact with the metallic surface of the voltage transformer panel and allowed electric current to continue to flow, despite the fuse having been blown...

“The above ‘double fault’ scenario is rare, and we are working on how to eliminate a recurrence in the future.”

As a result, the SPLRT was running on only a single switchboard on Aug 15.