Designing for future railways
STATISTICS in Malaysia and other countries worldwide indicate a correlation between Gross Domestic Product and mobility growth. A first-class land public transport system, therefore is especially important.
Realising this, the Malaysian Government launched the National Rail Industry Roadmap led by the Government Transformation Programme, Economic Transformation Programme and 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), which provides a comprehensive strategy to achieve the vision of making public transport the rakyat’s choice for mobility by 2030 (National Land Public Transport Master Plan, 2012).
The Malaysia Railway Supporting Industry Roadmap envisions a high demand in engineering services in the field of Design, Manufacturing and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul activities until the year 2030 and the rail infrastructure expects to see a high investment of RM160 billion by 2030.
Thirty thousand new positions are projected to be created in all rail segments of civil and system projects by 2020 and expected to increase up to 96,000 by 2030. To fulfil the demand for skilled human capital, the Government has set up the Centre of Excellence under Rancangan Malaysia ke-11 (RMK 11) and Universiti Kuala Lumpur, a fully owned subsidiary of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) has been mandated to establish an institute specialising in rail technology.
A sum of RM31.5 million has been allocated to develop industry-standard facilities and industry-oriented facilities.
On March 23, 2016, MARA established what became the first national higher institute focusing on rail technology – the Asia Rail Centre under the purview of UniKL to act as a Centre of Excellence for the rail industry.
“Asia Rail offers programmes in the field of railway domain including rolling stock, signalling and communication, electrification, permanent way, railway safety, scheduling, customer service, maintenance operation and management of rail technology.
For the rolling stock programme, Asia Rail is the only institution, which is not an existing railway operator with such facilities in South-East Asia.
“Even more proudly, the development, design and commissioning of the rolling stock facilities were all done by UniKL’s very own industry experts. Currently, there are three railway experts with 15 years of industrial experience on board UniKL Asia Rail on a fulltime basis,” said UniKL Asia Rail Centre director, Azman Senin.
Asia Rail has also gone on to establish partnerships and collaborations with key organisations and institutions within the country and worldwide, among others Rapid Rail, Prasarana, MRT, KTMB, Malaysian Rail Link, MyHSR, Technology Depository Agency, China Communications Construction Company, Siemens Malaysia, Bombardier, Hartasuma, CRRC, CCCC-GK, Rasma Corporation and CMC Engineering.
Institutional partners include MTR Hong Kong, International Railway Signalling Engineers, University of Sevilla, ADIF SPAIN, DB Rail Germany, JR Kyushu and Hunan Vocational College of Railway Technology.
These partnerships and collaborations will strengthen Asia Rail’s capability and capacity to provide world-class academic delivery. Asia Rail also benefits from the Industrial Collaboration Programme, which is managed by the Technology Depository Agency, an agency under the Ministry of Finance.
Courses and programmes offered by Asia Rail include:
1. Professional Certification in Rolling Stock Maintenance
2. Signalling and Communication Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 (MTR Hong Kong Module)
3. Permanent Way Development Programme (International Module)
4. Thermite Welding for Railway Vendor and Operators
5. Railway Safety Management All courses and customised programmes are offered to companies or individuals looking to enhance their career, especially in the railway industry.
Members of public and interested organisations are welcome to visit Asia Rail and its facilities from Monday to Thursday, during working hours.
■ For further queries on short courses, academic programmes and facilities visit, contact Azman Senin (azmans@unikl.edu.my), Norhudah Basri (norhudah@unikl.edu.my) and Radziana Abdul Rahman (radziana@unikl.edu.my)