Off the wire
• 3-citizenship tennis player Olmos to represent Mexico in Universiade  • Chinese, Dutch firms meet to expand cooperation on agricultrue, food  • China builds multiple unit train for Europe  • Tasmania's growing reputation as tourist destination partly due to Chinese president's visit  • Australia's health minister urges citizens to get flu vaccine as near-epidemic strikes  • Malaysian PM mulls legal action against The Wall Street Journal  • China's top political advisor meets Mexican senate president  • China asks central SOEs not to sell shares amid market volatility  • China starts emergency response against typhoon  • Nepal gets new Chief Justice  
You are here: 　 Home

Singapore's train service operator apologizes for massive disruption

Xinhua, July 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore's train service operator SMRT on Wednesday apologized for the massive disruption during evening peak hour on Tuesday and reiterated SMRT's commitment to improve train reliability.

At a press briefing, Desmond Kuek, chief executive of SMRT apologized for Tuesday evening's disruption which may have affected an estimated 250,000 commuters. Kuek also said SMRT is committed to bringing high efforts of train reliability to commuters.

The press briefing was co-chaired by Land Transport Authority ( LTA) Chief Executive Chew Men Leong. Chew said LTA has recognized that the disruption was serious and they will continue to do checks and minimize such occurrences.

When asked about the cause of severe disruption, Lee Ling Wee, SMRT's director of trains, said that they are not 100 percent sure of the root cause right now, and they will look through the data and find it.

Lee also added that trains have been ruled out as a cause after overnight checks, and tracks and power substations might be possible causes.

Singapore's two main MRT lines came to a sudden halt simultaneously during the evening peak on Tuesday, resulting in large numbers of stranded passengers at all 54 stations on the two lines. The disruption last about three hours, which was possibly the worst public transport disruption Singapore has experienced. Endi