PETALING JAYA: Inspections are ongoing to ensure the operational safety of the LRT system after Monday night’s collision between two trains, said transport minister Wee Ka Siong.
“APAD (Land Public Transport Agency) will reinspect the line as soon as Rapid Rail completes the required repair and installation work. It will ensure that safety aspects are prioritised before operational rehabilitation approval is given,” he said in a statement today.
“The Kelana Jaya Line LRT service is still being run according to the alternative plan,” he said, adding that only one track is being used.
Wee had said yesterday that because of this, a bottleneck could be expected from the Damai station to the Pasar Seni station, which involves seven stations.
He said the “platoon” method will be used for two trains entering the track in the same direction to reduce the bottleneck, adding that 58 trains on the line will be fully operational without a reduction in frequency.
In a Facebook post this morning, he said an inspection team consisting of officers from APAD’s rail enforcement division and the rail planning division found that an emergency walkway was unstable because of the impact of the collision.
In addition, three rail clips were not mounted on the rail section, and Rapid Rail installed them immediately.
Wee said the inspection team ordered Rapid Rail to replace the damaged linear heat detector sensor cable starting at “tunnel segment 126 up to tunnel segment 96”, which is about 28.5m long.
This is to ensure that the fire detection system in the tunnel from the KLCC station to the Kampung Baru station is functioning well.
He said Rapid Rail will carry out the work soon, stressing that this is an “operational critical” safety component of LRT services.
Earlier, rollover train testing began at 3.08am and it was found that the simulation of train movements was running well.
The inspection team completed its tasks at 4.30am before the LRT service team checked in at 6am today.-FMT