Project manager Norman Goh, 46, who boarded the train at the Outram Park station, said the train stopped abruptly when it was travelling towards Tiong Bahru station.

“Strangely, the train was tilted when it stopped moving,” said Mr Goh, who was with his wheelchair-bound father. He added that the train then travelled back to Outram Park station.

SMRT said on Facebook that the tilt was because the track was on a slope and at a bend towards Tiong Bahru station.

“The train is stable,” the operator added.

Other commuters The Straits Times spoke to said they did not realise that there was a train disruption, but noticed that the trains took longer to arrive at the stations.

One of them, who gave her name only as Ms Farhana, said she was worried about being late for work. She had left her office at lunchtime and had planned to work from home for the rest of the day.

The 24-year-old, who works in the financial services industry, said she waited for about 10 minutes for a train from Outram Park to Tiong Bahru.

Train services on another section of the EWL were disrupted for six days after a faulty train caused severe damage to the tracks and trackside equipment on Sept 25.

The faulty train was also a first-generation KHI train, with the Land Transport Authority saying on the same day that both the authority and SMRT would do a thorough check on those trains overnight, before they were put into service the next day.

The earlier disruption – one of the worst in the 37-year history of Singapore’s MRT system – affected about 2.6 million commuters, including some students who were late for their examinations.