Just barely a day after Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan hired religious leaders to pray for rail reliability, both the East-West Line and North-South Line saw a major disruption each during the peak hour morning today (Sep 28). As early as 5.53am, SMRT reported a track fault affecting train services between Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris stations.
SMRT first reported a 30 mins delay, and corrected it to a further 20 minutes and subsequently added 20 minutes delay until train services resumed more than two hours later at 8.37am. The inaccurate reporting caused overcrowding in all East-West Line stations as commuters made wrong travel plans based off inaccurate reports.
Over at the North-South Line, a platform screen door fault at Novena station caused major disruption at around 7am with trains delayed by more than 15 minutes. City-bound train services were moving slower due to the opened train door, according to a media release by SMRT.
On Wednesday (Sep 26), the superstitious Transport Minister hired 8 religious leaders consisting of priests and monks to “pray” for rail reliability at the new Downtown Line station.