SINGAPORE: Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam said he was "confident" that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan will be able to "sort things out" following Wednesday's (Nov 15) train collision at Joo Koon MRT station.

Twenty-nine people were injured in the incident and taken to Ng Teng Fong Hospital and the National University Hospital.



Mr Khaw apologised to commuters for what he described as an "awful day".

In his Facebook post just after midnight on Thursday, Mr Shanmugam said yesterday's collision added to the recent MRT-related issues that have "sorely tested the public mood".

"People naturally ask why these problems are recurring. They are fed up, despite the overall improvement in transport. When trains get delayed, people feel it acutely, and the overall measurements of disruption free periods mean less to them.



"I am confident Minister Khaw will sort things out. He went into MOT in October 2015. Since then there have been significant improvements, building on the good work of his predecessor, Minister Lui Tuck Yew. Of special note, Minister Khaw has moved to strengthen the engineering teams," he said.



Mr Shanmugam, who is also the Minister for Law, added that from a public perspective, all the "hard work, good work has been affected by the recent serious incident".

"Meanwhile all our prayers and thoughts are with the 29 people who had been injured in today’s collision of trains," he said.



Following yesterday’s incident, Mr Khaw said he advised SMRT and LTA to suspend train service from Joo Koon and Tuas Link stations for system provider Thales to conduct a thorough check.

In its tweet at 4.43am on Thursday, SMRT confirmed that there will be no train service between Joo Koon and Tuas Link on the East-West Line.



[EWL]:Train svc btwn #JooKoon & #TuasLink is suspended. Free regular & bridging bus svcs are available btwn #JooKoon & #TuasLink all day. — SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) November 15, 2017

SMRT said free regular and bridging bus services are available between the two stations all day.