Circle Line services hit again after fire in depot

Transport Correspondent For a second day, passengers on the Circle Line (CCL) had their journeys disrupted after several trains briefly lost power at about 8pm on Sept 18, stalling for about 15 minutes.

- Kok Yufeng

Rail operator SMRT said in a statement that a fire broke out in one of the power system cubicles at Kim Chuan Depot, leading to a power trip that disrupted the power supply to the entire 35km rail line. "This caused some trains to stall, and lighting within the trains was affected," SMRT added.

The operator said the fire was extinguished by its engineers, who were on site, while the Singapore Civil Defence Force was also activated.

SMRT said it restored power to the CCL by 8.10pm and normal train service resumed at around 8.15pm.

The rail disruption on Sept 18 comes after 11 CCL trains stalled for about an hour during the evening peak period on Sept 17 due to a power fault that also affected the entire MRT line.