‘Urgent’ track replacement works led to East-West Line delay: SMRT – Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: Morning commuters taking the East-West Line (EWL) on Tuesday (Feb 7) faced longer journey times as engineers completed "urgent works" near Joo Koon Station, SMRT said.

The train operator said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the works to replace a track point, used to guide the direction of train travel, began on Monday night.

Due to the short work window available each night, this typically takes two to three nights to complete and is normally planned to take place over a weekend to minimise the impact to commuters on weekdays, it wrote.

However, SMRT decided to carry out the replacement work outside of the weekend window in this case due to its "urgency and criticality".

Only one platform at Joo Koon station was open due to the works, and commuters travelling from Jurong East to Joo Koon on Tuesday morning experienced longer journeys as a result, it added.

SMRT tweeted about the expected delays from about 8.15am, estimating an additional 15 minutes' travel time. The delays stretched up to 25 minutes, but by about 9.10am, the company updated that trains were progressively returning to normal speed along the affected stretch.

In its Facebook post, SMRT advisedcommuters to cater for additional travelling time from Jurong East to Joo Koon during the evening peak hour on Tuesday.

The operator said that it was making train service arrangements to minimise congestion from Jurong East to Joo Koon on Tuesday evening and would deploy additional staff to assist commuters at stations.

It added that its engineers would complete the replacement works and get the track point up and running after the end of service on Tuesday night.

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'Urgent' track replacement works led to East-West Line delay: SMRT - Channel NewsAsia