The Circle Line faced a delay during morning peak of 7 July 2026. Trains stopped longer at stations and in between stations, causing crowds heading towards Buona Vista and one-north to build up at platforms.
Crowdsourced reports of Circle Line delays were posted by SGTrains at 7.50am, with Reddit posts about the delay at 8.31am, 8.55am and 9.07am. Delay announcements were made in trains, but there was no alert on MyTransport.SG at any time, despite delays extending to 15-25 minutes.
A history of unreported delays
A debate over reporting of MRT delays started in late 2025, when two delays (18 Nov TEL and 2 Dec EWL) came and went with no acknowledgement on SMRT’s X (formerly Twitter) page.
MRT reliability had been in the spotlight after a disastrous period with 15 disruptions between July and September alone. However, SMRT’s service updates on X stopped on 17 September 2025.
After the 2 Dec disruption, LTA announced that “localised” communications were being prioritised for minor delays (involving a shorter stretch of the rail network and less than 30 minutes).
But passengers were still unhappy, so a website was launched to display train status. MyTransport.SG notifications made a return. Yet some minor delays, like 7 July 2026, are still not reported.
Why are some minor delays still unreported?
Short answer – we have no good answer either that isn’t just a cynical assumption that performance KPIs are being manipulated to look better.
Drawing a distinction between major and minor delays is fine – and it’s okay to only actively notify major delays. But there’s a difference between classifying a delay as minor and not reporting it at all. The latter doesn’t let anyone change plans.
When one line is delayed, minor or major, those making long or even medium-length journeys could switch to another line if they knew upfront. For example, on 7 July 2026, those travelling on the Circle Line could have avoided a 15-25min delay by taking the East-West Line or North-East Line.
As more lines and connections open, more passengers could avoid getting trapped in crowds if they knew there was a delay before they tapped in at a station or transferred into a delayed line.
Making the most of redundancy
The ever-increasing redundancy – our rail projects are mostly about adding connections within the network, not making shorter paths or faster trains – means even more reason to report delays.
In fact, the benefits of rail expansion are so heavily skewed toward resilience and connectivity that newspapers often end up grasping at straws and making commuters look naive just to justify “travel time savings” when the real advantage is having alternative routes and fewer transfers, not actually shaving minutes off a commute.
Example: “Muhammad Firdaus Mohamad Radzi, 35, said he plans to visit VivoCity shopping complex on the weekends, as he can take a shorter direct ride on the CCL from his home near Paya Lebar station to HarbourFront station.
“At present, the pharmacy technician seldom visits VivoCity as the direct CCL route requires a 19-stop ride around the top arc of the loop. With the new extension, this will be reduced to 11 stops.” – Justine Ong, “Faster rides, lower fares for commuters when new Circle Line stations open on July 12”, for the Straits Times.
But with or without Circle Line Stage 6, Firdaus is better off taking the East-West Line to Outram Park and transferring to the North-East Line to HarbourFront, a journey of only 9 stops.
Closing words:
Just report the delay.
How many times do we need to say it?
It’s going to end up on SGTrains or Reddit anyway.
Everyone benefits when it’s reported, whether It’s someone already trapped and justifying their lateness, or someone who has the chance to avoid the delay altogether.
Just report the delay.
This is a guest post by @transporttakes.you