Kelana Jaya LRT disruption: Transport Ministry calls on ehailing companies to help affected rail commuters

PETALING JAYA: The Transport Ministry is calling on ehailing companies to play their part in helping rail commuters who have been affected by the week-long partial shutdown of the Kelana Jaya LRT line that began on Wednesday.

"We are even prepared to grant 'instant approvals' for these companies' applications for more drivers to be added to their companies," said Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong at a press conference here to provide an update on the status of the troubleshooting for the intermittent signalling and communications disruptions on Friday (Nov 11) morning.

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Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Kelana Jaya LRT line carried around 330,000 passengers each working day.

Dr Wee was asked on the role of ehailing in providing some relief for affected commuters, who are now served with more than 120 free bridging buses coming from the Rapid Bus, Smart Selangor, and Mara Liner fleets.

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Many commuters had complained about drastically increased ehailing fares following the service stoppage, and it was held that putting more ehailing drivers into the system should mitigate things somewhat until Kelana Jaya resumes full operations.

A total of 16 stations along the Kelana Jaya line have been closed with operations suspended from Nov 9 until 15, after a malfunction in the LRT automatic train control (ATC) system.

The LRT station affected are Kelana Jaya, Taman Bahagia, Taman Paramount, Asia Jaya, Taman Jaya, Universiti, Kerinchi, Bangsar, Abdullah Hukum, KL Sentral, Pasar Seni, Masjid Jamek, Dang Wangi, Kampung Baru, KLCC and Ampang Park.