Kelana Jaya LRT hit by delays again

Commuters waiting for the LRT trains at the KL Sentral station. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Raevathi Supramaniam, July 27, 2015.Rush-hour commuters were left fuming when the Kelana Jaya line light rail transit (LRT) service was hit by delays again – this time due to faulty platform doors at Masjid Jamek Station in Kuala Lumpur.

The LRT stations along the route were packed with commuters waiting for trains.

RapidKL said on Twitter at 6.15pm that trains would be moving more slowly as the technical team worked on the problem.

"Trains will move slower. Pax (passengers) may take other alternative (sic) while our technical team are rectifying the problem," it said on Twitter.

Many commuters responded angrily on Twitter. One commuter said: "@MyRapidKL what other alternative that pax have????? Taxi? Buses? Or walking? Come on guys!"

Several other commuters alluded to the problems that hit the LRT service in the past week. "@MyRapidKL it's always during peak hour. Congrats. @rapidkl never fail to waste people's time," said one of the commuters.

A passenger heading to KL said she had to wait for 10 minutes in the train before it moved. She believed that the problem was only for Gombak bound trains as trains in the opposite direction seemed to be working fine.

RapidKL said in an earlier tweet that manual driving was in progress at Masjid Jamek Station due to a platform door fault.

An update by RapidKL on Twitter at 7pm said: "We are doing our best to rectify the problem and return service to normal."

Last week, in two separate incidents, two LRT trains on the Kelana Jaya line experienced brake problems, one near Universiti station, in Petaling Jaya, and the other at Setiawangsa station.

The incidents caused service disruptions and resulted in both trains to be enveloped in smoke.

The first incident occurred at Setiawangsa Station at 8am, and the second at Universiti Station12.18pm.

Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd had said in a statement that the company was aware of the problem and had taken steps to overcome it by fitting new brake seals for the 35 four-car trains.

The move was taken as a temporary measure while waiting for the train manufacturer, Bombardier, and Knorr Brake Company to come up with a long-term solution.

Bombardier Hartasuma Consortium had said that it was working towards a permanent solution for the issue it called “dragging brake”.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had also called for a safety audit to be carried out on LRT services following the incidents.

The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) had said it would set up a special committee to investigate.

- TMI