East-West Line train disruption: What caused it and the extent of the damage

[@rutooru367]

Let the staff do their job, lets not finger point when it has already occur. The staff are just like every single of us who are working for a living. No one wanted this to happen, its more work for the staff.

[@SuryaSurya-re3vn]

Agree. No one wants this to happen. Thanks God that no one gets injured.

[@jakechen1932]

No one takes responsibility for this? DO you know how much economic lost this created?

[@SGS-zh6zv]

Dunno how appreciate life one ah New York subway they run like 3 trains at consecutively every 45 mins

[@LonganLee]

Sugar coating only guarantees Singapore become a rubbish bin

[@sgbuses]

Does this mean that all 1.6km of the track has to be replaced? No way trains can be allowed to run at full speed with 34 breaks on the track 😨

[@woonfaseng8737]

showing and telling us the damaged caused by maintenance or operational failure ain't the answer we like or truly wants to know, seem more like trying to shift blame to track???? What is the real cause? seems no answer here leh

[@enviro500]

parts of the 1.6km

[@onexoxtoo]

Tracks, third rail and switching points. All damaged parts.

[@Kumomo92]

@@woonfaseng8737 Did you even watch the video before commenting?? "What is the real cause? seems no answer here leh" More like you need your eyes checked.

[@EonityLuna]

Probably. Either they will have to remove the affected sections and splice new rail in, or the entire track needs to be torn out and relaid. And given that the Singapore MRT uses continuously welded track, the replacement process won’t be easy. For one, the rails will have to be pre-treated before being welded together, or it might break again during cold weather (unlikely in Singapore but could be possible if the rails are heated too much during the treatment process) or develop a kink and bend out of shape during hot weather.

[@psingh007]

Glad this was detected before any untoward incident

[@woonfaseng8737]

showing and telling us the damaged caused by maintenance or operational failure ain't the answer we like or truly wants to know, seem more like trying to shift blame to track???? What is the real cause? seems no answer here leh

[@FakeHaqimy]

​sorry I didn't ask for your bad opinion ​@@woonfaseng8737

[@iamt_tl]

this whole thing isn't an incident?!

[@psyteo3130]

@@iamt_tlbro. No one was hurt, that was his point. Untoward incident

[@getreal323]

@@woonfaseng8737 then what you want to blame? you choose lor. Already lucky that no derailing happened which will kill or injure multiple people

[@giantpinkbutton]

Thank God no one is hurt. Let's be understanding because no one especially SMRT wants this to happen. The stress on the staff also brings a strain as they work long hours to fix this ASAP. The damages of the many rails can take time. It's not that simple. Be kind.

[@I-ti2tb]

they collect money from us so they must be responsible!

[@mikeliangliang6920]

Thank you guys for your hard work, safety come first.

[@mezza001]

Thank you to all the hardworking mrt crew for working round the clock on the repairs. Things happens. Most importantly to fix it asap and we move on. I hope everyone are safe and well.

[@wmchan44]

From the few photos shown in the video it appears that the damage to the tracks and power rails are caused by the train's dislodged boogie wheel axle being "forcibly" dragged by the locomotive along the 1.6km damaged area. This could have been prevented. The locomotive driver would have sense the higher resistance of the tow and there should also be human's supervisors following the towed train. They would have then noticed the dropped axle box or hear the loud "steel on steel" rubbing noise of the dislodged boogie onto tracks and sense an abnormality. Singapore workers still have a long way to go to get this type of emergency response correctly executed. Take this incident as a valuable lesson to be learnt. Disseminate the lesson.

[@urkurk2]

hmm how do u knw these things?

[@wmchan44]

@@urkurk2 Ahhhh... let's say a bit of knowledge, some observation and a desire to get things right. Good for Singapore.

[@gtfj6cheb]

But poor taxpayers are the ones paying for this lesson due to workers' mistakes.

[@SuryaSurya-re3vn]

Agree. The extensive damage seems like caused by serious human error while dislodged boogies. It should have been a much simpler issue to solve if was not caused by this significant damage

[@onexoxtoo]

Workers are not empowered to make decisions. They are just shouted at and scolded to get things done.

[@fuosg-r5j]

let me add something here that may be causing the weakening of each train plying E-W line. about a 100 Metre from Kembangan stn incoming from Eunos stn there seems to have a serious defect in the track. Each set of wheels in every train carriage emit a very loud thud as the train rolls into the stn. you can hear a noisy series of thuds till the last set of wheels clears that section. It has been going on for weeks and no action seems to be made to rectify this problem.

[@TiredBush]

35 yo train... Penny-wise, pound-foolish. Now you damage the track infrastructure that's going to cost you even more in time, money and reputation. Hope the management learns their lesson.

[@onexoxtoo]

population and ridership growth have surprised them. So bring out 35 yo trains

[@ExitTwo888]

Will the head of mrt step down and the maintenance crew and surpervisors punished for the incident ? Do our workers know the proper way to maintain a train ? Are we really world class ?

[@JojoJoget]

@@ExitTwo888 choosing to use old trains is an upper management decision chode

[@seabassYT]

our COE only entilted a 10-year life for a car and the train is 35 years only and has not replaced?

[@bltzcstrnx]

35 years old is not a problem for trains. Many trains from the 80s are still operational around the world.

[@jsaria1851]

Safety come first, repair it properly so that it can be used in a long run...❤❤❤ Rest and work take turn

[@Gamezoner911]

Imagine upping train fares whilst making us ride on a outdated 35 year old train and poorly maintained tracks

[@asantaraliner]

I can sympathise with that. In Jakarta, all the trains are second hand from Japan that was built between 1975 and before 2000s and yet the government wants to change the fares *based on our identity card number* so person with a higher salary pay more expensive fare than those with lower salary. There's also several reasons why we opposed the fare increase, such as several broken escalators and elevators, overcrowded trains, less frequent trains especially only 2 trains per hour on the Tangerang Line and a single train every 2 hours to Nambo. Last year there was a debate that would it be better to import used trains from Japan, however Luhut Binsar Panjaitan ban the import and as a result the trains were overcrowded. The worse part is that the government spent more money to incentives the electric car rather than subsidized the trains.

[@onexoxtoo]

capacity not keeping up with population growth

[@OmegaMegalodon]

@@onexoxtoo agreed!!! Well spoken, tracks and trains are over-worked. When things are over-worked, they broke down.

[@lokisg3]

LOL. At least we not like India, every month always have a story about train accident.

[@SuryaSurya-re3vn]

@@lokisg3what India? Where is it? Why Singapore needs to be compared to India?

[@TuahHang-k3y]

I'm sure there are sensors along the tracks and on the point machines. For passenger safety, even a single track crack or point machine damaged along the way should have raised an alarm at the control centres. Damages like this should have raised multiple alarms. Why was the faulty train able/allowed to traverse so far and amplified the damage to such an extent before it was finally stopped by the loss of power?

[@coclim5712]

Go sleep lah…night

[@striesDIY]

@@TuahHang-k3y i agree with you. Employing damage tolerance and structural health monitoring in trains may help to reduce the likelihood of the part falling out due to age

[@lookingaheadoftime]

Woah, thank you for the photo for explanation. I think SMRT should have a press conference to explain the technicality and severity of the issue. 😢

[@pikachu8508]

I just wonder how they carried out maintenance on that train and failed to spot this failing train axle.

[@striesDIY]

I think the combination of cyclic load and the structurally weak point of the axle (the weight concentrates there) causes the unexpected catastrophic failure of the train axle box. I was certain that trains should be replaced more often, as a 35 y/o train’s condition may be fluid

[@ExitTwo888]

​@@striesDIYnew car inspection is 2 years. When is the mrt inspection ?

[@kelvintan4809]

Iswaran needs to be investigated! He was the transport minister!!!

[@Doggomorph]

We understand the issue and hope smrt can fix it too Thankful for the ground staff as well The only issue is increasing fares even after this which shouldnt happen although in the business world it is a way to earn more

[@quad6752]

Technically for undercarriage and axile box to dropped down is a very serious technical issue . It shows during monthly or quarterly inspection by SMRT/LTA Technical Support Team has failed to detected during inspection is not acceptable . Technically axile box don't just drop off unless there is no maintenance or inspected by incompetent technical people or just tick off the daily/monthly / quarterly checklist to confirmed train is worthy for operation.

[@polarspirit]

Should've decomm the 1st gen trains long ago. Save cost on necessities some more lah

[@lookingaheadoftime]

Yes, they should decomm long time ago. Sometimes it is just not worth it to save some money for this kind of critical important assets

[@anchanachisomasundram3724]

All the new buses and trains don't appear solid. Made in China. New buses also look flimsy. Without being bias I must say new China drivers can hardly communicate with passengers

[@tinyblackmage]

Exactly the old trains really cannot make it, cramp n weak aircon. Diedie still don’t want to change, now kena liao lor

[@gtfj6cheb]

Yellowish interior, seats tinier than our butts, aircon weaker than a fan, and the moment you step in, a stuffy dusty smell...so much for being refurbished..one look can tell very old train already beyond useful life, not suited for our 6 million..often see them along east-west line...whenever i see this i don't wish to get in.

[@SuryaSurya-re3vn]

@@anchanachisomasundram3724never seen Indian drivers on the bus, we need to import Tata Bus to have Indian drivers on board. Is that what you’re saying?

[@anasqai]

While it's like this topic, will there be a train like woodlands to Johor from Tuas to Johor? The $5 ride.

[@JJ-zs9mu]

Might be some dislodged metal parts drop from the train under chassis or faulty track shoe or guide to cause such damaged

[@musico3415]

In Feb and July 2024, I reported via LifeSG that I smelled rubber burning and white smoke emitted into the green westbound mrt train cabin as the mrt came to its halt and on opening the doors at both the Paya Lebar station and Simei station. I suspected they were due to some wear and tear of the train parts. However, there was no update on any action taken. So I am not surprised by the current east-west train breakdown situation. Wished they had taken my reports seriously.

[@lunartesting23_]

99% of lifeSG reports go un-noticed lolmao

[@silverhawk911]

Would regular preventive maintenance and scheduled replacement of critical components help to reduce the chances of trains and train network breakdown issues ?

[@ilove_class805]

“Down the rails you go axle box!”

[@stevenlee2868]

We are lucky that no-one is hurt, if the crack happen while train moving, it could be serious. Thanks God. 😅😅

[@lawrencelau5728]

Safety first, better not rush

[@malakshmireddi7461]

Thank you SMRT.

[@Paul-H-Wolfram6608]

Probably there could be more cracks to be found on different subway railway lines around the island.

[@durian9988]

Questions : 1. 35 year old train? 2. What was the design life-span of that broken axle? 3. When was last inspection, or if any was due?

[@coclim5712]

Yawnzzzzz….go sleep lah…

[@jegak1009]

Yeah, no one e will answer your question Sir!

[@boontan6636]

Are the staffs really doing the maintenance and checks regularly? Or are there any sinister sabotage with political reasons locally or internationally? This investigation must be dug to the roots and exposed. Basically, I trust our local maintenance staffs. Period.

[@rpch6561]

What happened to all the maintenance propagated by the posters they pin all over the mrt stations?

[@michaelshih8163]

The problem will be solved when the size of the population hits 10 million. I am sure PAP is hard working on that.

[@joellim8970]

No infomation on the platform, no guidance for the crowd, not enough buses...all 800k people streamed into the affected stations confused and frustrated. Info at the stations could have been handled better.

[@EngHuatNg-y2o]

I am just wondering, is the failure of boogie causing damages to the track? As reported. Or is the track cracked first resulted in this boogie damaged? Been a weaker link. The boogie is running on the track and if there is a crack on the track will result in boogie unsupported, then the boogie failed causing more damages to the track. During the first major breakfown, they spent $10 millions to invite so-called experts to investigate and provide advices, but nothing concrete. Then Lui Tuck You took over the hot cake and burnt his ignorant hands. After that Kaw Boon Wan, before his retirement, done the job after chanhing lots of major components, and as long as the trains running, no one asked gor the final cost. And when everyonr were happily travelling, this incident strike back! Why are we not learnt from previous incidents and why are we allowed private operators to run this important public transport??

[@mohdpolaris3403]

They mean the axel dropped then all those pieces got broken by dragging axel? Oh God - it must be crazy

[@fkfms5945]

This is a blessing in disguise perhaps, inconvenience rather than a more severe incident. Hopefully there will be a more robust process to ensure the infrastructure integrity detection is done in a timely manner that facilitates necessary repairs or overhaul.

[@Bellarinadeng]

I have heard on news before that there was a frequent routine check up maintenances. If that the case, how can 34 cracks appeared all of the sudden???? Anyone or qualified engineers from the respective field able to elaborate, thanks

[@vs2d40]

Wheel derailed and wiped out everything along the way, it’s possible

[@ChinnayyaPillaiThanasekaran]

Why was preventive maintenance not done. Wasn't past lessons learned not enough.

[@佛力]

Ya lor

[@MisanthropicDuck]

How to prevent this lol. Need you to work at SMRT to teach them.

[@coclim5712]

What measures? What past lessons? Just zipped your mouth lah

[@dexterkun4307]

why not you try work there repairing and see how others feel when public keeps complaining over mrt breakdown.

[@ChinnayyaPillaiThanasekaran]

@@dexterkun4307 I am running a company for 40 over years. So don't give the crab. I know what I talking about.

[@wilsonsoong]

The damages look bad, the night works are not going to be easy on this. Hope is up and running by next week

[@aegontan686]

This whole disruption has potential as a Thomas & Friends episode

[@michaelshih8163]

MRT reminds me of a sardine can. Now, even the sardine can is gone.

[@anthonychia4805]

I remember every few month they check the track but how can this happened i was involved in the first mrt contruction i am the sub contractor for aircon system i know they alway check the track

[@blade0811]

this kind of equipment does not fail off easily, its either major maintenance lapses or sabotage?

[@ExitTwo888]

Reduce the salary of the head and those holding high position but increase the maintenance crew salary to boost their morale., maybe their morale is low. Positive behaviour will come and things will move smoothly at work like a happy family 24/7. Just remember workers to maintain the trains are important too.

[@chewhuatquek9929]

Imagine this incident inside the tunnel? Like Redhill or tiong bahru stations

[@blade0811]

luckily the axle box didn't cause the train to derail, or else there will be casualties

[@apakansaja8505]

*Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Just minimise the problem. Relax lahhh...*

[@GregSzarama]

Where do you live? West-East-North-South? Has it affected you? Or maybe you drive a car.

[@coclim5712]

@@GregSzaramapls be flexible…u can only take mrt? he is right…just relax and be forgiving …

[@linge1850]

This is a total failure of PM work. It doesn't matter how old the train is. PM works can detect any part which is not in good condition and get it repaired or replayed. Can SMRT get someone do the PM work?

[@yew6420]

Why most Minister for Transport ended up running onto problems?

[@vlogkylee7382]

Last time used cable tie. Now use cable tie.😂😂😂😂😂.

[@blood852000]

Cheapskate

[@Triangapore-w9z]

Lucky it only effects the west bc my neighbourhood is only connected to East-West line

[@blackjack9190]

Thank you sir when you say “my team and i are working hard” means you personally when to the track wearing helmet,vest and carrying tools to repair those track. Good job

[@garfieldandfriends1]

This would have prevented if SMRT didn't retire the newer C751B trains early and retire this 065/066 first instead.

[@the_random_noob9860]

You damn well know the population will never reach 10 million

[@singsing3628]

The only time SMRT trains were running smoothly was when Minister Ong Ye Koon was in-charge.

[@chiksengchee9206]

From my technical pt of view .. it take at least 5 days to restore back with technicians n engineers working 24 hrs on rotating shifts .. 😢😢

[@yiaplengwee5909]

So the story is initial damage......then withdrawal process caused more damages......? What does this mean? Either SOP not followed or the team involved is totally incompetent........?

[@user-ck2cp3lt3v]

Night night safety Inspection?? This is the RESULT?? PAY TAKE NOT WORKING?? PAY TOO LOW??

[@qilimercurial5116]

I guess so..

[@MKiurinuRigold]

Wah 😫 😮

[@JojoJoget]

They gonna miss alot of things inspecting using tiny flashlights

[@audreyDsouza]

safety comes first!!

[@angchoonweiTommy7396]

Delivery transport need to measures ???

[@CottageHills]

can we use cable tie and fix anot ah? mr DIY got sell

[@calebloh8006]

Rail cracks at 0:32.

[@joekerr8334]

Imagine that there was a rail line carrying iron ore from the mines to the port. A lot of heads will roll !

[@chronotee]

Overmaintenance

[@weehc]

Who told them still using 1st gen train. How u overhaul, will not really as good as new trains. U should be like our COE system that can only use for 10yrs.

[@tinyblackmage]

Exactly, penny wise pound foolish

[@gtfj6cheb]

Well said. A piece of paper can actually last longer than an overworked machine.

[@TB-zt6hs]

Why are such old trains allowed to even operate under such heavy loads

[@ravindrandoraisamy9758]

No COE

[@LawrenceWank001]

PAP would commit so much taxpayer money to build stupid founders memorial building, but cannot buy modern trains. Where is your priority PAP?

[@TiredBush]

Lol, they need to quickly solidify their legitimacy before the public realizes they're just a bunch of bozos without the Lees 😂

[@realzia2]

And the fact that even lky himself didn’t want one and they still went against his words and waste taxpayer money…

[@lunartesting23_]

train job has got to do with LTA, not PAP

[@3311atl]

6 milliom people. Come come make it 10 million

[@imjohn8843]

not possible, Singaporeans birthrate not even passing the replacement point (0.97 per women when it needs to be 2.1). if population goes to 10 mil. means it would be comprised of mostly foreigners

[@weehc]

​@@imjohn8843 it is already mostly foreigners at 6m. So 10m is also similar.

[@TiredBush]

10m is when we get ousted to nowhere and SG just becomes ForeignerLand lol

[@gtfj6cheb]

​@@TiredBush Well said. We are already pushed to the fringes while they live in CBD.

[@elgorithum]

So all the price hikes over the years went into allowing these cracks to go unrepaired?

[@banekosong]

erm. the cracks were new, made by the drop in axle box from an old train. so if you want to scold, it should be "all the price hikes but cant ensure the axle box stays in place?!"

[@blood852000]

​@banekosondamn right!!

[@Paul-H-Wolfram6608]

Most of it went to the high paycheck of the chairman, GCEO and also to those top officials.

[@optprimus1214]

True that

[@HaziqRosli-d6v]

Obviously lack of maintenance. It's a 35 year old train. No such thing as "overmaintenance" when the COE already expired 3 times.

[@MKiurinuRigold]

35 years is too Long for a train to be in use - 15 years will be a likely period for usage in the future -

[@arnoldcobarrubias6593]

this guy probably is the guy who doesnt recycle, you see, its not like it just went 35 years straight, it got refurbished and upgraded to keep up with other, modern trains

[@optprimus1214]

Gotta leave some for Iswaran to take home 👀 with the amount of money you’d think sg would be able to have top of the line trains for its people

[@sgbuses]

15 years lifespan in the future might be about right. Trains around the world built around 2000s are starting to or fully retired already

[@pikachu8508]

35 years is still ok as long as they are properly maintained. In London, Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines are still running 1970s trains, although the latter will be getting new trains very soon. The problem is how did they carried out inspections and maintenance on that train.

[@sgbuses]

@@pikachu8508 Correct. Some Japanese made trains run for 60 years also no problem. Can even export to other countries to continue.

[@JackyMan22]

If there's 30 there's hundreds throughout. You don't just see 10 and that's it. :c

[@SKSK-xe2zu]

Never do simple maintenance cause big problem.

[@koosmangat]

Seems not safe all these while.. we should all take bus instead.. 😢

[@Oldlee-g6r]

Management decision on maintenance, repair and changing spoiled train ...

[@natico-w812]

paging for those Hao Lian people saying this is a First World island

[@BoxBox276]

When towing a train out of service, no staff to eye ball any anomalies during the process? Smrt/LTA has no such sop in place!? Gdness😐

[@rutooru367]

Dont think anyone expected the part to drop

[@nothanks364]

Eyeball from where ur house ah?

[@phrog2579]

The train drives itself back to depot. If you want to have staff walking along with the train as it returns to depot, you need to move at a snails pace because it is inherently unsafe to have people next to a 10 ton hunk of metal with a contact patch that exerts enough pressure to sever limbs and kill immediately next to people. Keep in mind the distance between station and depot is like 5? 10? 15?km so if you want to have people walk with the train and every train, it would take multiple hours to return just 1 of the hundreds of trains back. This incident occured on active service track, even before turning off onto the depot track so having anyone guide or follow the train back would mean needing staff to walk on live track which is again, unsafe because not only do you have trains that will turn you into a smear of red, you also have high voltage lines that will basically be like being executed by electric chair if you touched it wrong.

[@coclim5712]

@@phrog2579just ignore him lah…only know how to kpkb

[@cotton-xb1xp]

Unforseen circumstances happens. And it is understandable. Hopefully it can be rectified and resume as soon as possible. ❤❤❤

[@aplacecalltambun]

Singapore ans must realize there is a price for wanting. LKY said even the air you breathe in must be paid for

[@ShajahanElizer]

The air we breath must b paid for??? Rubbish😂😂😂

[@ilLOLminati]

"Wanting" basic necessities ?!

[@EZTCFA2024LovesTheSimpsons]

Dr. Tang

[@5kplamse]

Treat your father well when he's alive, not build monuments for him when he's dead

[@LucasDiep]

Essentially the C-51 couldn’t hold its shit

[@LucasDiep]

C151 my bad

[@harrylee200]

Some top men need to resign than these issues will serious improve. If not these people will not learn ..

[@cookingwithfluffytiny4371]

No narration silent

[@nurhishammursidi387]

Which means engineers are mostly sleeping on the job slacking thinking alls good...why pay them so much when all they do is sleep during night checks... ????

[@SGS-zh6zv]

Just to make things clear. It isn’t 100% LTA’s fault for this. We got people saying “why don’t we just retire all the old trains/why got new trains”. Reason for this is cuz the process for retiring trains is a long one (at least for sg). Way it works is when a new train finishes testing, it can get deployed for service, then only they can retire one old train. Basically, if we were to retire all at once, we’d lose like 30-40% of all trains in sg.

[@IPP-zr3im]

you living between jurong east mrt and buona vista mrt stations? whats wrong with replacing? cant buy new trains? from 2013 to 2023 not enough time to buy that so called 30-40% trains?

[@r.a.h.175]

Boh chap attitude, a common disease affecting the job performances of workers almost everywhere. They work when directed otherwise they rather take a nap so to speak. You can sense and feel that genuineness is not there. Hence efficiency is affected, standards compromised. In Sg money talks with lots of pretentiousness. The people assigned to look after the MRT needs to be closely supervised. Boh chap attitude caused the breakdown. Could not be bothered until a serious breakdown shakes them up. Going the extra mile, forget it. We don’t see the negative behaviors but it’s there. Otherwise why 34 rail breaks undetected? No pride in their work!

[@johnj1602]

They want to increase fare some more isit...?

[@佛力]

Ya lor , still using 35 yrs old train and ask we to pay more.

[@PhilipP-dh3wr]

Surely there is an SOP in place for towing n pretty sure similar incident happened b4 over 35 yrs . Yet , you never learn . To me it's a simple human error that caused extensive breakdown n inconvenient million computers over so many days . With this attitude in place , the nx breakdown won't be far away.

[@angchoonweiTommy7396]

Average 13 years one break down

[@highkage6092]

Why? Easy the curses from Singaporeans for the price hike

[@istboardz]

Use ziptie can already

[@LonganLee]

Sia Suay lah or Majulah?

[@T威]

Useless

[@tanpengjoo7205]

If not this incident happened probably the whole line track would have more cracks😂😂

[@Ben-nu2kt]

overload🤣

[@tonykwok9763]

TRANSPORT VOUCHERS👍👍👍👍👍 REPAIR.....WELL TAKE YOUR TIME....CITIZENS WILL KNOW HOW TO GET HOME....🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬SO SMALL COUNTRY🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@agathiarbabaji1240]

Should seriously consider raising the ministers pay to do a good job.

[@superminder9908]

Is that the train that was bought from China?

[@skywheel-td5es]

What make you think it's from China? 30 years old train none of them is from China. Don't just blame the train or the track, it's human problems . Somebody is not doing good job, poor maintenance , inspection or operational failure....etc.