Typical ST forum letter

ST Nov 3, 2007

Be specific about disruption in train service

TRAIN service in town was disrupted on Thursday at about 6.30pm. I was at City Hall Station waiting for the train when I heard the following announcement:

'There is a track fault causing service disruption for trains going south towards Marina Bay Station. The service disruption will last more than an hour.'

One would logically deduce that the track fault was somewhere between City Hall and Marina Bay stations.

My wife who was waiting to take the train at Somerset Station to Tampines at around the same time also heard the announcement.

Hence, we were confused as to where exactly was the track fault. Was it between Somerset and Marina Bay or between City Hall and Marina Bay?

Thus my wife was uncertain if she should take a bus home or continue to wait for the train, hoping that the track fault was between City Hall and Marina Bay. By this time, lots of peak-hour commuters were crowding Somerset and City Hall stations.

SMRT could handle service disruptions better by doing the following:

Have more frequent and detailed announcements on the location of the track fault, which part of the train service is affected and which is not.

Put up signboards to inform commuters about the service disruption so that affected commuters need not go into the stations unnecessarily.

Modify entry gates to handle ticket refunds during service disruptions.

Eric Ong Leng Kee

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Sigh.

Does it matter where the track fault was? The train service would have been disrupted no matter where it was.