KUALA LUMPUR: Prasarana Malaysia Bhd (Prasarana) announced that its light rail transit (LRT) operations were smooth after several analyses and improvements were conducted on the trains last night.
Its chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said a trial run on 10 trains along the Kelana Jaya line – from Ampang Park to Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) – was operated late last night to ensure the trains run smoothly.
"We have conducted an analysis and improvement by changing the trains' modem and power supply. All 10 trains were smoothly operated, however, one had to be manually operated at first.
"We see this as a good sign. However, we would still wait for the special team from the Thales Group Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) from Toronto, Canada to further investigate, and identify the backlog, as well as the root cause of the malfunction.
"With their help, we hope that we can speed up the malfunction work at the automatic train control (ATC) system," he told a press conference at the Lembah Subang Rapid Rail depot, here today.
On Monday, RapidKL announced that the LRT services between the Kelana Jaya and Ampang Jaya stations were halted after its ATC system malfunction was detected for safety purposes.
A total of 16 stations along the Kelana Jaya line have been closed and suspended from operating, from Nov 9 until Nov 15.
Among the LRT stations involved include Kelana Jaya; Taman Bahagia; Taman Paramount; Asia Jaya; Taman Jaya; Universiti; Kerinchi; Bangsar; Abdullah Hukum; KL Sentral; Pasar Seni; Masjid Jamek; Dang Wangi; Kampung Baru; KLCC; and Ampang Park.
Azharuddin added that the group would focus also on four major areas to address the suspension of the LRT, namely increase in feeder buses, the additional manpower at affected stations to control the movement, free fare for affected passengers; and providing the latest updates on maintenance work.
"Overall, we have allocated 100 buses this morning. We have also received 20 additional feeder buses from the Selangor state government, which is the SMART Selangor bus that can help passengers in transit.
"We have also observed and went on the ground to see the situation at several affected stations. As of this morning, the average time passengers had to wait for buses was five minutes.
"Meanwhile, 80 additional Prasarana manpower at affected stations were placed to control passengers' movement and guide the passengers to their destinations," he said.
At the same time, he also said that Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd would be giving out free fares as compensation to affected passengers at the Kelana Jaya line.
"The free fares would be implemented after the LRT operations and services are restored. Details are being finalised and we will announce further in due time.
"We at Prasarana are also grateful for the people who have been lending their hands and providing ride services to the affected passengers.
"We would like to apologise once again and thank our passengers for their patience during this difficult period," he said.