INSTALLATION of temporary platform barriers along the Ampang/ Sri Petaling and Kelana Jaya LRT lines is expected to start by the end of the year.
Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd acting chief executive officer Nor Azmi Mohd Yusof said the barriers, which would cover approximately 70% of the platform openings, were expected to take around 16 months to complete.
Nor Azmi said that the initiative marked the first phase of their plan to improve commuter safety at train stations.
Upon completion of the barriers, he said they would move to the second phase, which was the installation of platform screen doors as a permanent safety solution.
“The installation of platform screen doors will require considerably more time.
“Given the urgency of improving safety for passengers on the platforms, we have decided to proceed with barriers first,” he said during a media briefing held at Menara Prasarana in Petaling Jaya, on their efforts to improve the reliability of rail services.
There were two fatal incidents involving passengers falling onto the tracks in recent months.
On June 3, a Taiwanese man died after being struck by a train at Pusat Bandar Puchong LRT station.
A similar tragedy occurred earlier on Feb 22, when a visually impaired man lost his life at the Titiwangsa LRT station.
Nor Azmi also said that daily commuter numbers reached 1.028 million as of September, a 5% percent increase from the 992,000 commuters target set this year.
The number was an 11% increase from 907,000 commuters recorded in the same period last year and about double the figure in 2022, he said.
