Cause of Train Fault along Downtown Line between Bukit Panjang and Beauty World Stations

Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Transport (a) what is the cause of the train fault along the DTL2 line between the Bukit Panjang and Beauty World stations on 16 October 2017; and (b) why has this disruption affected train services along the DTL3 line during the DTL3 Open House on the same day.

The incident happened on 15 October at about 12:40 pm, due to a broken track circuit cable lug between Hillview and Beauty World stations. The track circuit fault caused a Downtown Line (DTL)2 train to stall, moments after leaving Cashew station for Hillview station. It had to be manually driven back to Cashew station and all passengers were detrained safely. Normal train services resumed at 1:20 pm.

While the fault occurred on DTL2, we decided to temporarily suspend the injection of trains into DTL3, so as to avoid congestion on DTL2. This has affected the DTL3 Open House but, overall, the Open House was a great success, attracting 360,000 visitors. They familiarised themselves with DTL3 and were clearly enthusiastic. DTL3 officially commenced service on 21 October, and DTL now serves some 420,000 commuter trips daily on weekdays. This has been a major milestone for us and a great achievement for the DTL team.