Train services on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) were held up for about two hours on Wednesday morning because of a signal problem. Commuters said the trouble started as early as 6:15 am.
At 7:30 am, the train operator, SMRT, posted a message on Facebook. They told people to expect an extra 15 minutes of travel time between Woodlands North and Bayshore stations. An hour later, at 8:30 am, they announced that there would be no trains running between those stations in both directions to “facilitate train service recovery.”
SMRT trains president Lam Sheau Kai said in a statement at 9:05 am that to fix the system, “services were suspended for about 30 minutes.” He also added, “We apologise for the disruption to your morning journey and thank you for your patience and understanding.” During this time, SMRT provided free regular and bridging bus services and told people to use other train lines if they could.
About 10 minutes later, SMRT updated everyone, saying that services were “progressively resuming.” The free bus services, which had started at 7:55 am, had also ended.
Some commuters shared their experiences with the delay:
- A person said that at around 7:20 am, they had been on a train since 6:35 am, and it had only moved one station.
- Another person described a “big crowd” at the TEL platform of Outram Park MRT station and noted that staff were giving mixed instructions on whether people could get on the trains.
This incident happened just a day after another train delay on the East-West Line. On Tuesday night, a power supply issue caused a signalling failure between Aljunied and Tanah Merah stations at about 11 pm. Mr. Lam said their staff and engineers were quickly sent to the site to help commuters and fix the problem. SMRT later reported at 4:30 am that trains on that line were back to normal.
This isn’t the first time the TEL has had issues. In July, a signalling problem stopped trains for over an hour between Napier and Great World stations. In late 2024 and early 2025, the line was hit with three different delays in a single week, though SMRT said those issues were not connected to each other. For a separate, longer disruption on the East-West Line in September 2024, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) fined SMRT S$2.4 million.
