Melaka monorail doors malfunction 1 day after service resumes

PETALING JAYA: Seven years after it was shutdown, the Melaka monorail lived up to the fears of its detractors when it came to a temporary stop after its doors failed to work this morning.

The service was resumed yesterday amid much controversy with the state opposition questioning its practicality and tourism appeal.

Ayer Keroh assemblyman Khoo Poay Tiong from DAP told FMT that with technicians having to rectify the faulty doors, the monorail service had to be halted temporarily.

“A passenger who rode on the monorail just to check out the service had informed me of the faulty doors at about 11.40am. After a while, the technicians managed to identify the problem and the monorail resumed its journey,” he said.

Khoo said he is not confident as to the level of service that can be provided by the Melaka monorail, adding that this was just the beginning and that he is anticipating more problems.

“I went to the monorail station at about 1pm to take a look at the monorail operations and found that even its air-conditioning was not working properly.

“I spoke to some passengers who told me that first it was the doors repeatedly opening and closing for no reason and then the air-conditioning too was not working at one point. They managed to fix all these, but will there be more problems?” Khoo asked.

With the problems occurring just one day after the monorail service resumed, Khoo said passenger safety should have been the Melaka City Council’s priority before they reopened the monorail to the public after seven years.

“After what happened the last time when the monorail broke down, I hope they learned from their previous experience. I’m not sure if they did trial runs before the monorail resumed operations today.

“For your information, the RM10 that is charged now for a single ticket is only a promotional price for the entire month of December. They are planning to charge RM15 for adults and RM10 for children once the promotional period is over,” Khoo said.

Yesterday, the Melaka monorail resumed after a hiatus of seven years but residents and local tourists are wondering how the monorail would serve the public since it only travels at 20km per hour for a 1.6km distance.

The monorail line that had cost RM38 million was completed in and opened to the public on Oct 2010 but later suspended due to a series of technical issues.

It was left almost in an abandoned state since it ceased operating seven years ago. Some Melaka residents had also considered it an “eye sore” as the rail structure began to rust and its colour had started to fade. -FMT