the Land Transport Authority awarded SMRT a license to operate the LRT due to its experience with the MRT system. On 10 December 2010, the Ten Mile Junction LRT Station closed due to retrofitting of the station, and reopened on 30 December 2011. However, on 13 January 2019, the LRT station became the first-ever operational train station in Singapore to be permanently closed together with LRT Service C, which ran from Ten Mile Junction LRT station to loop via Senja would ceased operations due to low demand. Reliability and controversy The Bukit Panjang LRT has been beset by reliability issues since its inception, which was attributed to the difficult terrain and mature state of the town, in contrast to other developing towns in Singapore. Notable incidents include a collision between two trains on 19 November 2000 which injured five passengers barely a year after its opening, constant power glitches and maintenance failures, and an incident of a train skipping stations completely. The line has also suffered fatalities when passengers accessed the tracks without authorization, as its station lacked platform screen doors. In 2010, a LRT technician died of injuries sustained after being hit by a train at Phoenix station; he had been checking the power rail between Phoenix and Bukit Panjang stations. On the late morning of 28 July 2016, a train departed Segar on Service B, but sped past Jelapang, Senja and Bukit Panjang stations. Passengers said that the emergency stop button did not function and there was no response on the emergency phone. The train finally stopped before Phoenix station after another passenger managed to call a number displayed in the train. Subsequent investigations showed that a faulty antenna on the train had resulted in the stations not being able to detect and stop the train accordingly. The emergency stop button was also designed to only function when the train was at a station and not in travel. On 12 September 2017, speaking at an event commemorating the completion of a power-rail upgrading project for the North South and East West MRT lines, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan suggested that the Bukit Panjang LRT had been built as an "afterthought" due to "political pressure". Khaw said that the trains were designed in a "masochistic" manner, forcing commuters to go up and down with the twists and turns. He also compared the ride to a roller coaster, saying that