Rapid Rail has apologised to commuters for the inconvenience caused by two incidents of brake-related failures on the Kelana Jaya LRT line yesterday. The first incident involved faulty brakes on a four-car Gombak-bound train at Setiawangsa station at 8.19 am, disrupting services for nearly half an hour. The line finally resumed operating at around 8.45 am.
The second also involved another Gombak-bound train near Universiti station, with the disruption occuring at 12.18 pm. This time however, the implications of the problem were far more serious – a fire broke out on the train as a result of this failure, forcing the KJ line to halt services until 12.35, when line operation was switched to an alternate track.
A total of 53 passengers were on the train and had already been transferred to a rescue train when the brief fire occurred, Rapid Rail said in a statement. Both fires were put out by Rapid Rail rescue team members, using fire extinguishers in the trains.
The company said it had been aware of problems with the brakes from early this year and had brought this to the attention of train manufacturer Bombardier and brake manufacturer Knorr Brake Company, which have acknowledged that there is a design issue with the brakes.
Rapid Rail said that until Bombardier and Knorr Brake Company can come out with a permanent solution, it is replacing the brake seals in the brake calipers of its 35 four-car train fleet as a containment measure. As of now, some 40% of the 560 brake calipers have been fitted with new brake seals.
The company said that the brake-related issue has resulted in lower number of serviceable trains in a number of occasions over the last few months. It added that it had been conducting special checks on the brake systems of trains running on the KJ line to ensure the safety of the passengers was not compromised.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has said that he wants a safety audit to be carried out on LRT services following the two incidents, The Star reports.
“I am thankful that no one was injured in the incidents involving the LRT at the Setiawangsa and Universiti stations. A safety audit must be carried out so that the safety of passengers is always given priority,” Najib said in posts on Facebook and Twitter.
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The 4-car sets have been in service for a number of years, only now suddenly happen.
Can we be blamed for being sceptic?
Lest Bombardiem (M) Sdn Bhd releases their own statement, we have the right to be concerned. It’s our safety, after all.
While we are at it, I wish to highlight a terrible blunder by Prasarana to longer allow TnG topup at their stations.
This is ridiculous, cashless card is supposed to be encouraged and given incentive to entice people.
But Prasarana instead too greedy and stopped allowing topup. Their excuse is it was a mutual agreement with TnG, and if people wanna topup, go to 7e or ATM. Which will charge 50sen service fee.
Never have I seen this done elsewhere. London’s Oyster, Singapore’s Ezylink, HK’s Octopus card, etc offer true convenience, and rewarded with cheaper rate to use them (For London’s Oyster), whereas here we are charged to get more convenience.
Aiseh, pm should call for an audit on himself pulak. Already curi RM2.6 billion, now want to call audit on other companies.
Sendiri audit better.
RM2.6 billion is when the tupai already jatuh. What about the times when the tupai was still happily jumping and stealing nuts?
What about the other tupai in the cabinet and UMNO who are now keeping so quiet? They are equally guilty.
Old trick. Whenever something happened, straight away call for audit.
After long time, audit result reveal no problem. End of the day, no one accountable, nothing happened, nothing improved.
Enough of your P Ramlee shows!
No need to apologise PM. Just sort our the Prasarana corruption of giving probably giving their maintenance contract to some UMNO member and his 2 month old Rm2 company with no experience is servicing the brakes
The building of the LRT and MRT in the first place had so much of crony practice and corruption. It overshot by billions. So many makan so much of money. Mostly UMNO contractors la.
So now, the maintenance also same thing la. You dont need to guess who got the contract to service the brakes and the carts.
Dam typo, should be Bombardier (M) Sdn Bhd,
and “While we are at it, I wish to highlight a terrible blunder by Prasarana to NO longer allow TnG topup at their stations.”
The brake manufacturer should be Kroni Brake Company
Is FB and Twitter the official channel for the federal govt to announce stuff to the public? No more press conference?
yes if they said, lrt malaysia (official)
there u go. official.
i tot knorr making kiub ikan bilis or ayam? ahahah
In SIngapore, the train company whose train service is disrupted will be fined a maximum 10% of yearly sales.
In Malaysia, a sorry will suffice.
jamuan makan jer
Shouldn’t the safety audit be done annually at least? And since we’re at it, also do the service and performance audits as well. It’s called ‘proactive’
Glad nobody got hurt. Don’t think i’ve heard of brake problems affecting the LRT before, until now. And it happened on 2 separate occasions, within just hours apart.
if PM also need to take care of this LRT issue..we are doom, there are bigger issues the country facing…oh wait, forgotten all idiot MPs only tail tagging and no ideas to improve the country income but projects after projects to take money..
wow, diversion again??? what is that chicken trying to do??? let’s us focus back on 1MDB~
PM only acting like he is concerned with the rakyat while he and his goons whacked billions of Ringgit from rakyat without blinking?