A rail convenience
City folks look forward to faster commutes with the new mass rapid transit (MRT) line.
A NEW urban rail service has begun operations in the Klang Valley to improve public transport.
The first phase of the mass rapid transit (MRT) line from Sungai Buloh to Semantan (covering 12 stations) began operations on Dec 16.
Public response has been overwhelming.
Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, the operator of the urban rail system in the Klang Valley, has greater responsibility on its shoulders come 2017, running the MRT as well as fixing service disruptions to its light rail transit (LRT) lines.
Prasarana, which operates the Kelana Jaya and Ampang LRT lines as well as the monorail, transports an average of 1.3 million people a month. The old Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines have been in operations for 18 years but both the lines’ RM7bil extensions, spanning 35.1km, have been in operation since July.
Prasarana president and group chief executive officer Datuk Azmi Abdul Aziz was very excited about its first MRT.
“This is the first phase of the line from Sungai Buloh to Semantan, it’s not a complete line as yet ... more like an introduction of the MRT line.
“We expect that most of the ridership will be from Kota Damansara, the Curve, Bandar Utama and Phileo Damansara areas.
“It is not a full blown actual representation of the ridership of this MRT line. That could only be seen in July next year when the full line is completed up to Kajang,” he said.
Phase Two, covering the remaining 19 stations between Semantan and Kajang, is scheduled to begin operations next July.
Azmi said there has been good response to the six-month-old Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT line extensions. “We have introduced a 50% discount when you travel between 6am to 7am to ease traffic, which is working quite well. The last we checked, traffic during those ‘discounted’ hours has increased by more than 86%.
“So more people are travelling early now. We are planning to have more trains at this hour to encourage people to travel early. And we are looking at introducing this discount concept at other off peak periods as well.”
On the service disruption of the 18-year-old LRT lines, Azmi said Prasarana was upgrading and replacing the software and hardware of the lines so that they would not experience stoppage of service.
“All this disruption is mainly due to ageing. We intend to complete everything by first quarter for the upgrading of the old Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines,
“There are lots of costs but I don’t have the numbers yet,” he said.
Nevertheless, it was reported that Prasarana will spend RM250mil to upgrade the ageing power substations infrastructure on the LRT line.
The areas of upgrading cover almost all aspects of the two lines, from power supply to signalling to coaches.
The public was up in arms over the two service disruptions in September.
On the week of Sept 5-11, LRT services on the Kelana Jaya line stalled on a Friday morning after a power trip occurred between the Setiawangsa and KLCC stations.
The incident forced hundreds of stranded passengers to evacuate the trains and walk along the tracks to the nearby Keramat and Damai LRT stations.
On Wednesday morning that week, a rush hour downpour caused a similar power outage on the Kelana Jaya line, leaving thousands of commuters stranded for hours, especially at the Masjid Jamek interchange station.
As for the LRT Line Three from Bandar Utama to Johan Setia, Azmi said they had started awarding a few packages, such as the signalling and communication tenders, and work will start soon.