Train services along the entire Bukit Panjang LRT line were unavailable for about five hours on Saturday (Sep 9), after two trains stalled between Phoenix and Bukit Panjang stations.

Transport operator SMRT first announced the disruption on Twitter at 11.12am. It was not until 4.25pm that it tweeted that normal service has resumed.

Free bus bridging services were made available, said SMRT.

[BPLRT]: No train service due to train fault.

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) September 9, 2017

According to SMRT, an LRT train had stalled between Phoenix and Bukit Panjang stations at 9.45am. The train was towed back to the depot but after service resumed, a second train stalled at the same location.

“As this second train could not continue service, around 10 passengers were guided by staff safely to the nearest station,” SMRT said.

In its latest update, SMRT explained that the disruption was due to two broken rail support brackets “which affected the signal and ground rail between the two stations”.

“Engineers were deployed immediately to carry out rectification works which included the replacement of the rail support brackets, and signal and ground rail.

“Concurrently, network-wide checks were carried out on all trains and tracks to ensure that the system was safe for operations, before full service resumed at 4.18pm,” said SMRT.

It apologised to commuters for the inconvenience caused, and said further investigations will be carried out to determine why the two rail support brackets failed.