Malfunctioning surge arrestor cause of North-South Line disruption on June 3
SINGAPORE - A component meant to protect outdoor equipment from power surges, like those from lightning strikes, did not work as intended on June 3, resulting in a traction power fault that disrupted commutes along the northern stretch of the North-South MRT Line for more than two hours during evening peak hours.
In a Facebook post on June 15, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the condition of a surge arrestor located in a power control box near Kranji station could have deteriorated over time. The power control box was damaged by lightning, leading to the disruption.
The authority is now working with rail operators here to review the maintenance frequency of the surge arrestors, it said, adding that it will also work with the operators to strengthen their response to future disruptions.
Without going into specifics, it said public announcements will be improved to provide clearer information. Crowd control measures at affected MRT stations and boarding points for bridging buses will also be made better.
LTA will also review whether public transport operators here will need to maintain a larger fleet of standby buses so they can be activated as bridging buses during a rail disruption.
However, it warned that such a move needs to be carefully assessed, as having a larger buffer of standby buses will incur higher costs for the public transport system.
The June 3 MRT disruption left commuters angry and frustrated due to confusion on the ground and long waits and snaking queues for buses, as huge crowds formed at affected stations and bus stops.
One said he was stuck for almost 1½ hours at Choa Chu Kang station.
“They didn’t inform us at Jurong East. They should have informed us to go via the yellow line, but there was no information. We just took the train and got stuck at Choa Chu Kang,” he told The Straits Times.
LTA said it has since reviewed the disruption and rail operator SMRT’s responses to it.
It said a lightning strike had damaged a trackside power control box near Kranji station at 5.46pm, causing the rail disruption between Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands stations.
It was previously reported that a small fire had broken out in the power control box next to the train track in Kranji. The fire burned itself out before Singapore Civil Defence Force officers arrived at the scene.
No injuries were reported.
SMRT said on June 4 that the lightning strike damaged many components, including the disconnecting switch, which has been sent for further investigation by LTA, SMRT, Meiden and Kraus Elektrotechnik.
LTA said inclement weather and lightning risks prolonged service recovery efforts by SMRT as its engineers had to physically access the power control box on the MRT viaduct to isolate it before power could be restored to the rail at 7.50pm.
Inclement weather prolonged service recovery efforts by SMRT as its engineers had to physically access the power control box on the MRT viaduct to isolate it. PHOTO: SMRT/FACEBOOK
Train service later resumed at 8.10pm.
About 10 minutes into the disruption, SMRT activated bridging bus services for the affected stations and provided free boarding on 48 regular bus services, LTA said.
The first seven bridging buses arrived at affected stations by 6.27pm, and a total of 36 bridging buses were sent out that evening.
SMRT also deployed more than 160 additional staff, on top of the regular teams at the affected stations, to guide commuters to alternative rail and bus services.
Embed Facebook
LTA has reviewed the disruption on the North-South Line (NSL), between Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands stations, on 3 June...
Posted by Land Transport Authority – We Keep Your World Moving on Saturday, June 15, 2024
In its assessment, LTA said SMRT had responded in accordance with standard operating procedures, adding that the company had promptly disseminated information about the disruption through multiple platforms, including public announcements in stations and trains and through social media.
LTA said the impact of the disruption on June 3 was more serious than other major MRT disruptions in the past two years because it happened during peak hours and trains were unable to operate.
It added that bridging buses cannot be a full substitute for disrupted rail services as these buses can only carry 80 to 120 passengers, compared with trains, which can carry up to 1,000 or 1,200.
“This is why our longer-term plan is to build up the resilience of the rail network with new lines that are interconnected with existing lines, so that most commuters could switch to an alternative line when a rail line is disrupted,” LTA added.
According to LTA’s records, there were five MRT service delays lasting more than 30 minutes in 2023, three of them on the North-South Line.
In 2022, there were seven such delays across the MRT network.
