PETALING JAYA: The Shah Alam LRT line (formerly LRT3) will only open when every safety standard is fully met, says Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.
The company said that this project was currently undergoing a testing and commissioning (T&C) phase, which involved several critical stages such as the trial run, fault-free run (FFR) and trial operations.
It said that once completed, the technical documents could then be submitted to the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) for the Rail Operator Licence.
"Under the T&C phase, the current state is in the FFR stage, which is a comprehensive integration test covering key systems such as signalling, communications, LRV trains and the control system," said Prasarana president and group CEO Amir Hamdan to a press conference at Shah Alam LRT station on Wednesday (Dec 10).
"The LRT3 will not open this year, with the new opening date dependent on the results of the T&C phase.
"There will be updates on this gradually, and there will be a media briefing again on this in mid-January next year," he said.
Meanwhile, LRT 3 project director Patrick Hwang said for the main train, also known as the “Golden Train”, FFR requires continuous operation over 4,000km without any failures.
Other trains in the same group must complete 3,000km, while the remaining trains are required to complete 2,500km before they can be approved for operations.
Hwang also mentioned that the ‘Golden Train’ target has been achieved, while three trains have achieved the 3,000km objective, with the remaining 18 trains still undergoing FFR.
“We’re prioritising stress testing in order to have a safe and reliable rail system. The test will now be conducted with a higher intensity over a longer period of time.
"This will include more stringent inspections of all LRT 3 systems, including safety features and individual train functionalities,” said Hwang.
Prasarana Malaysia Bhd emphasised that there would be no compromise on safety, reliability and system stability, in line with the stringent standards set by Apad.
