Singapore’s government-controlled state media has collaborated with state-owned transport operator SMRT to stop reporting train service disruptions. The North-South Line (NSL) today (Jan 30) during the peak hour morning has been hit with track faults according to local public address announcements. Commuters are seeing trip delays up to 20 minutes, with trains moving at around 20km/hr. This is however not reported in SMRT Twitter or in the state media. There is also no response from the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Nearly all NSL stations are affected with Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Newton and Raffles Place stations especially overcrowded at the moment.
Crowd at Ang Mo Kio station Jan 31
Facebook groups operated by the Singapore government have also censored postings of train disruptions reported by members, with any posting that happened before on the current day being deleted on TATA SMRT Facebook group. The move is aimed to cover up the actual disruption reporting.
Just earlier this week, the SMRT vice-president of corporate communications resigned from his post, making way for a new “Chief Communication Officer”. However, the newly-appointed executive did not deliver timely disruption notifications as well.