Take for example when you board a SBS bus and it breakdown halfway along the journey. The driver re-compute his control panel. The passengers before alighting from the inoperable bus tap their ez link cards to obtain a reimbursed fare. The old way was the printout of ticket tabs given to alighting passengers from the inoperable bus so that he/she can board the next bus, showing the ticket tab to the new bus driver as proof.
So in the case of SMRT when passengers have entered the station, and suddenly find that trains becomes inoperable, long delays, and especially for passengers already in the train who may have to leave the train mid-way and walk along the tracks to the nearest station to exit, does SMRT reimburse the passengers through re-computing the fare-gate system wherein the EZ link card is being reimbursed with the distance fare when affected passengers exit the station due to a train breakdowns. At least passengers get some form of reimbursement of their MRT fare rather than, no reimbursement, late for work etc. Does anyone has any idea if such a reimbursement system for affected passengers is in place?