A look at Singapore’s MRT disruption and other train delays in Asia

Singapore experienced its worst MRT disruption in the railway’s 37-year history last week when a withdrawn train derailed on Wednesday, affecting around 2.1 million commuters.

Operator SMRT, one of the city state’s two metro operators, and the Land Transport Authority announced on Monday night that services on the East-West Line will resume on Tuesday after the completion of necessary tests.

The incident occurred around 9am last Wednesday when an empty train had a defective axle box. This caused the wheels of the undercarriage to come off the rails, resulting in damage to various parts of the track, including equipment, a third rail that supplies power to the trains, and point machines, which guide trains from one track to another.

As engineers and technicians in the city state scramble to get operations back on track, here’s a look at how other similarly modern Asian cities have handled train delays and disruptions in recent years.