Major delay on MRT system along East-West line

Thousands of commuters were stuck between 15 minutes to over an hour during a major peak hour delay on the MRT along the East-West line on Thursday morning.

The cause is still being investigated but an announcement by the SMRT on one of the trains said it was due to a "faulty train between Tiong Bahru and Outram".

The delay during peak hour morning traffic caused many on their way to school or work to be late.

Public relations executive Felicia Goh, 24, told Yahoo Singapore she was stuck on the train for over an hour.

"I was initially stuck at Clementi before moving two stops and stalling again at Buona Vista," she said.

Train commuters stuck at Commonwealth MRT. (Yahoo! photo)

Train commuters stuck at Commonwealth MRT. (Yahoo! photo)

Undergraduate Jacqueline Wong, 22, was at Buona Vista station and after waiting for 15 minutes on the train and finding out about the long delay on micro-blogging platform Twitter, got off and took a bus instead.

Her mother was not so lucky. She took one hour and 20 minutes to get from Buona Vista station to Outram Park, reaching work two hours late, said Wong.

Jeremy Foo, 32, an engineer stuck at Outram Park station, added, "I heard trains have been delayed all morning. I've been waiting here for the last 25 minutes and still no train. This is bad."

Another commuter stuck at the Outram MRT station, sales manager, Germaine Chia, said what made it worse was that mobile phone reception was poor.

"People have been complaining since I got here. The trains are not running and there' s no reception so we can't call in at work. Thankfully, this seldom happens," said the 27-year-old.

A stationary station at Pasir Ris MRT. (Yahoo! photo)

A stationary station at Pasir Ris MRT. (Yahoo! photo)
Frustrated commuters also took to Twitter to complain about the crawling train service and warned others to skip the train ride this morning.

@Redha E tweeted, "I think the delay affected a lot of places. Lots of grumpy people at Bugis MRT tation when i got down just now."

Said @fumblies, "Thanks to the lengthy train delay, I get my much needed sleep on the stationary mrt + an excuse to be super late for lecture."

When contacted, SMRT said it will be releasing a statement soon.

On Sunday, a train was delayed at the Ang Mo Kio station after a Thai teenage girl fell onto the tracks and was hit by a train.