Debated in Parliament on 12 Jan 2026.
Mr Jackson Lam asked the Acting Minister for Transport (a) what are the root causes identified for the major delay on the North-South Line between Ang Mo Kio and Woodlands on 26 December 2025 due to a train fault; (b) how often have similar faults occurred on the North-South Line in the past three years; and (c) how are incident responses evaluated for improvement.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the delay was caused by a fault in the backup power system that supports critical systems on the affected train. For safety reasons, the train is designed to stop if there is a loss of power to its critical systems.
This was the first occurrence of such a fault. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SMRT are working with the train's original equipment manufacturer to identify the root cause and measures to prevent a recurrence.
LTA and the rail operator will review the overall incident response to identify areas for improvement, including in terms of service recovery, commuter management and public communications.