Singapore: Track fault causes train delays on East-West Line April 9

Event

A track fault caused delays for approximately three hours along a westbound stretch of the East-West Line (EWL) on Monday morning, April 9; normal services resumed at 10:18 (local time). The fault affected travel between Jurong East and Joo Koon stations beginning at 07:36. According to the operator SMRT, the disruptions were due to a track circuit failure between Pioneer and Jurong East stations that occurred just before 07:00. 

Context

All 35 stations along the EWL have had their operating hours on weekends shortened since March 2, so as to provide more time for engineering staff to test the new Communications-Based Train Control signaling system. The shorter operating hours will continue until April 29. The rush to implement the new signaling system comes after a train collision at Joo Koon station in November 2017.