KUALA LUMPUR: Commuters using the Rapid KL Monorail will have to wait until next year to see improvement in service despite a previous RM494mil upgrade project, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
This is because only five of the 12 sets of four-car trains ordered were delivered by the contractor, Scomi Engineering Bhd, in 2016 and subsequently some of these trains were grounded after parts started falling off.
Scomi Engineering has since had its contract terminated by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, the operator of Rapid KL Monorail.
“They (Scomi) had a meeting with me yesterday (Oct 8), and I told them they must be prepared to come to the negotiation table to settle the dispute with Prasarana.
“I do not want this dispute to go on at the public’s expense,” he told reporters after visiting the Tun Sambanthan Monorail Station here on Tuesday (Oct 9).
He said the company would have to find a solution despite having their contract terminated by Prasarana.
Loke said that he would then table Scomi and Prasarana's proposal to the Cabinet for approval by the year’s end.
If both parties were still unable to break the deadlock, he said, then a proposal would be forwarded to the Cabinet that would also include the project being tendered out to a foreign company to repair the existing trains and supply new ones.
If resolved, he said, there would be improved rapid rail services by early 2019.
Under the 2014 upgrading project, Loke said, Scomi was responsible for upgrading the monorail stations, develop a depot and supply 12 sets of four-cars trains for Prasarana’s monorail service.
However, he said only five sets began operations in 2016 and there were subsequently five incidents of parts falling off four trains occurring between May and November last year.
“All five trains were grounded for two months after the incident but when the operations resumed, three more incidents of parts falling off the trains happened as of January this year,” he said.
Owing to the legal dispute and termination of the contract, Loke said that all trains were grounded over the last nine months.
At present, he said, Prasarana was only operating five sets of two-car trains, with ridership averaging at 37,093 passengers daily compared with 71,943 in 2015, 63,614 in 2016 and 48,748 last year.
Loke's visit to the monorail station came in the wake of calls by the public and netizens for him to improve the service.
On Oct 1, Loke rode the LRT for the first time and pledged to improve the service, including using it to get him to work whenever possible.
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