PETALING JAYA: Experts in railway signalling from Canada are now in Malaysia to assist local engineers to troubleshoot the root cause behind the unstable system that is disrupting services along the Kelana Jaya LRT line.
A special team will be formed with experts from Thales Group – the Kelana Jaya LRT signalling supplier – and local system engineers to find the bugs that have been messing up the automated signalling system of the network over the past five days.
There is now a week-long partial shutdown of this popular train line.
This instability in the communications system resulted in trains on the Kelana Jaya line, the country’s first fully automated train network that opened in 1998, being unable to be operated safely across 16 of its 37 stations, with the affected stretch starting from Kelana Jaya all the way to Ampang Park.
Prasarana Malaysia Bhd CEO Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said the team will work to find both long-term and short-term solutions to overcome the root cause – which had yet to be identified as at press time – behind the instability plaguing the automatic train control (ATC) system across the 16 major stations that include Ampang Park, KLCC, KL Sentral, Masjid Jamek and Pasar Seni.
For automated train systems, the resilience of the communications system – one that transmits information such as train location and speed from the train to the operations and control centre (OCC) – is of utmost importance.
Any deviation from the high levels of stable signals in such a network will threaten the very foundation of railways or any transport system, which is safety, as it is very difficult to operate such trains manually due to the high service frequency.
At peak hours, there will be several dozen trains on the line all at once, which makes it virtually impossible from a safety standpoint to be operated manually.
For example, the head-on collision between two trains – one driven manually – between the Kampung Baru and KLCC stations on May 24, 2021, injured 213 passengers, 47 of them seriously.
Mohd Azharuddin said there are many components in the Kelana Jaya network, including some trains being replaced progressively, have reached or are near the end of their service lifecycle.
Over the past few months, trains on the line have demonstrated mechanical problems, such as failing tachometers and worn brakes, which are relatively straightforward to fix, provided the parts, all of them imported, can arrive on time.
Inquiry: Police directing passengers where to go to continue their journey after the partial shutdown of the Kelana Jaya LRT line. — Ong Soon Hin/The Star
“The tachometer and brake caliper issues are more physical and mechanical in nature, while signalling is more about electronics and software, and hence, a more detailed assessment is needed,” he told a press conference at the Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd headquarters here yesterday.
He added that all possibilities would be looked at in arriving at an acceptable short-term solution, even as there are longer term plans for total upgrades to ensure the system remains viable.
“It is an ageing system, and about time for upgrades. We recognise that there are electronic components in the automatic train control and train system that are at, or near, the end of their service life.
“We already have plans to change, such as preparing to receive new trains next year.
“We did have (Prasarana) board approval in October to upgrade and replace things that range from hardware to software.
“The long-term solution is the upgrading of the signalling system, with the first phase costing around RM150mil. This (latest breakdown) is beyond expectation, and we are truly sorry,” said Mohd Azharuddin, who was appointed Prasarana CEO on July 15, 2021.
Prasarana is a special purpose vehicle under the Finance Ministry, with its board also including members from the Transport Ministry, among others.
Mohd Azharuddin said failure of this nature is extremely rare.
“We are looking at all possibilities behind the matter. In the short term, we will make sure the trains run safely. We followed the SOP (standard operating procedure) in the manual diligently, but we could not rectify the problem.
“As such, we have to call in the experts, in this case, the manufacturer of the original equipment. This is rarely encountered.”
The technical team at Rapid Rail, which also operates the MRT and monorail networks in Kuala Lumpur, has been working round the clock for the past three days to troubleshoot the issue
On whether the team is also suspecting sabotage as a possible cause, Mohd Azharuddin said: “We are looking at things from the technical point of view right now, and we need the experts to look at it first.”
The team from Thales will arrive in Malaysia today after flying in from Canada.
“We will conduct detailed tests on both existing software and hardware. This has never happened before,” he said.
On why the closure is until Nov 15, Mohd Azharuddin said the line will reopen earlier if the problem can be solved more quickly.
“We don’t want to pause operations again, we want to make sure it is solved once and for all.”
During this partial shutdown, trains from Damai to Gombak, and from Lembah Subang to Putra Heights, will continue to run according to their normal schedule, though these services will stop at 11pm.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Kelana Jaya line carried around 330,000 passengers on an average working day, far eclipsing any other rail line in the Klang Valley.
After Covid-19 restrictions were loosened recently, the line has been transporting about 200,000 passengers on a working day.
