A train fault at Clementi station has resulted in severe overcrowding along the East-West Line (EWL) at around 5.30pm during the peak hour evening today (Nov 22). Queues stretching as far as 300m can be seen at Buona Vista station, and all stations including the North-South Line and Circle Line are also overcrowded. SMRT has chosen to cover up the train breakdown incident at Clementi and made no public announcement informing commuters of possible delays.
According to commuters, SMRT made inaccurate local announcements over the public address system calling for 10 minutes delay, then revise it to 20 minutes.
The fault came after Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan made a rare appearance yesterday, again in his usual denial fashion, claiming that rail reliability has made “good progress”. According to the Minister, the power station was not able to handle the increased train frequency to accommodate the overpopulation during peak hours and hence power faults have been increasing.
In recent months, SMRT have been intermittently skipping public announcements of train delays to improve its rail reliability statistics.