Government-owned transport operator SMRT today (Nov 9) skipped public announcements to a 30-minute train delay, causing chaos and an estimated S$10 million-dollar in economic losses in all stations along the North-South Line (NSL) during the peak hour morning.
According to commuters, the 30-minute long delay started at 7.20am and no announcement was made. There is no update on SMRT Twitter and Facebook page either. State media CNA interviewed a commuter verifying the train delay:
“We only want SMRT to alert us if (there’s a) problem … Almost every week we are late for work because of MRT train fault and no announcement.”
Photo of crowd taken at Ang Mo Kio station from Twitter
Another commuter said he waited at Admiralty station for 30 minutes before getting on a train towards Yio Chu Kang station. It is unknown whether if the delay has been fixed but SMRT made no mention of any delay information.
By omitting train delay announcements and putting it off the record, SMRT gets to improve it’s rail reliability and KPI under the Land Transport Authority’s measurement, mean km between failure (MKBF).
Today’s train disruption is the second in the week, following a train fault on the East-West Line last Saturday (Nov 4).