📢 We’ve completed our investigations on the East-West Line (#ewl) service disruption from 25-30 Sep 2024. As the recovered axle box, axle bearings, and chevron springs were badly damaged, it wasn’t possible to establish a definitive root cause. 🔍 The findings show that degraded grease on the incident train’s axle box was a likely cause of failure. The axle box had generated sufficient heat to burn the chevron springs’ rubber, which eventually caused it to dislodge near Dover station. The incident train also caused severe damage to the tracks and trackside equipment as it travelled towards Ulu Pandan Depot. 🚆 LTA also found that SMRT had twice extended the train’s overhaul interval beyond its stipulated maintenance requirement of 500,000km. These extensions were done based on internal procedures, without detailed engineering and risk assessment as axle box failures are uncommon. LTA will impose a financial penalty of $3million on SMRT. This will go to the Public Transport Fund to help lower-income families with their public transport expenditure.