| SINGAPORE: Commuters can expect trains along the North-South and East West Lines to run slower and with longer intervals as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has ordered train operator SMRT to place a temporary speed restriction of 40 kilometres per hour at certain stretches. This comes after overnight investigations found 21 "claws" dislodged along the rail system, which may have disrupted power to the trains. The inspection was due to have been completed by Sunday morning, but it stretched on as engineers needed more time to correct the missing claws. Spaced at 6.3 metres apart, the claws are usually covered and had to be manually inspected. At a media conference on Sunday afternoon, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said this will add five minutes to an end-to-end journey, which normally takes 60 minutes. Mr Lui said: "When we first did the planning to close the trains until 10am, the assessment was that there was sufficient time to do the visual checks. "As a result of some of these discoveries, we felt there was a need to go deeper into it and also to do some of these gauge measurements, to do some of the rectifications and as they took me through all that they did, it's actually quite a laborious process." Mr Lui said: "Out of the fleet of 120 over trains, 13 will have to be withdrawn from service. And, we will need to make sure that we replace collector shoes and do those repairs and rectifications. "So obviously this will have some impact on the headway timings for ... |
