SINGAPORE - Commuters taking the North-South line from Toa Payoh to Marina Bay experienced a delay of about 30 minutes on Monday night as a result of a faulty train.

An operational train had to be deployed to "push out" a defective one from Novena to Newton MRT stations, said train operator SMRT.

SMRT had sent out an alert on Twitter at 9.44pm to notify the public about the faulty train. About half an hour later, at 10.16pm, SMRT announced that normal service had resumed on the affected line.

But when The Straits Times visited Novena station after train services resumed, the trains were still crowded.

Ms Germaine Seow, 24, a clinic assistant who was at Novena, said: "I didn't know there was a disruption but the platform was very crowded when I got here. It's very hard to squeeze into a train too. At this time, there's usually very few people."