Another challenging journey for many commuters as East-West Line MRT disruption enters Day 2

SINGAPORE: Many commuters face another challenging journey on Thursday (Sep 26), with train services between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations still unavailable as the disruption that started on Wednesday enters a second day.
In updates on Thursday morning, operator SMRT said that shuttle train services are available between Boon Lay and Jurong East, as well as between Queenstown and Buona Vista stations.
SMRT also said in its updates that free regular bus services are available between Boon Lay and Queenstown stations and that bridging bus services are available between Jurong East and Buona Vista.
At Buona Vista MRT station at about 6.30am, CNA saw at least five buses offering bridging services at the bus stop and crowds were starting to form. Staff were seen ushering commuters onto the buses.
At about 7.10am, queues started swelling at Buona Vista MRT station’s bus bridging point. CNA’s reporter noted that the last bus left about 10 minutes ago and now there were snaking queues stretching at least 100m.
Mohamed Fayyaz, a commuter, told CNA he had left for work twenty minutes earlier than usual, in anticipation of Thursday’s disruption.
He was travelling from Kallang to Choa Chu Kang, a journey that would normally take him about 1.5 hours.
Due to the disruption, he had to take the East-West Line train from Kallang to Buona Vista, followed by a bridging bus to Jurong East and then the North-South Line to Choa Chu Kang.
When CNA spoke to him at 7.30am at Buona Vista MRT station, he had already been travelling for 1 hour.
“I didn’t expect it to be so crowded (at Buona Vista),” said the 23-year-old.
“But I mean, these things happen once in a while.”
Another commuter Wu Xiao Ning expressed disappointment over the disruption.
“Frankly speaking, I think it’s a shame on Singapore … LTA or SMRT spent so many years and cannot solve the problem completely,” he said.
The 45-year-old who works in management said he could not leave for work earlier as he had to wait for his children to go to school.
“I’m definitely going to be late and (have informed my company) that I’ll be, at minimum, one-hour delayed.”
Over at Jurong East, at least four bridging buses were lined up near the MRT station at around 7am. Passengers were seen calmly getting onto the buses, as SMRT staff informed them that the buses would bring them to Clementi, Dover and Buona Vista.
At around 7.10am, queues started to form at the bus bridging point near the MRT station. Staff were heard telling commuters to fill up the upper deck of the bus.
One commuter, who only gave his name as Rex, said this was his first time experiencing the train disruption that has spanned over two days.
However, the 32-year-old said he was “not concerned” about the situation as he made his way towards the bus bridging point from Jurong East MRT station at around 7.40am.
Mr Rex told CNA his work starts at 9am and that there was “enough time” to get there.
Disruptions on the segment of the East-West Line affecting nine stations began as early as 9.25am on Wednesday after a train caused a power trip when it was returning to Ulu Pandan depot.
This caused a train near Clementi station to stall, and about 850 commuters on this train had to disembark on the tracks and be guided back to the station platform.
From then, regular train services were not available at the nine stations – Boon Lay, Lakeside, Chinese Garden, Jurong East, Clementi, Dover, Buona Vista, Commonwealth and Queenstown – in both directions.
On Wednesday evening, commuters experienced transport delays during rush hour. CNA teams on the ground noted that despite the lines and crowds, the situation was mostly orderly.