Recently, TRANSIT commented of our disappointment that the new Minister of Transport Kong Cho Ha was not giving enough attention to accountability on the part of the various railway companies.
We were surprised that KTMB and KL Monorail were involved in numerous service delays (some very serious) without any call for investigation or action by the Minister.
On Friday 9 July, the Kelana Jaya LRT once again joined the list of rail lines facing service disruptions, with a 2 hour delay at the height of the evening peak period.
You can see articles about the delays below:
- Computer glitch affects thousands of commuters (The Star)
- Commuters stuck in LRT for 2 hours (NST);
;
What’s worse, these delays were followed a day later by another delay on the Kelana Jaya LRT, from 6:30-8pm – duly tweeted by @MyRapidKL.
TRANSIT Says:
We know that delays are sometimes outside of the control of RapidKL – things can occasionally happen. And we do note that RapidKL is getting better at tweeting updates to people.
Somehow, this is probably coming of little comfort to the people who were stuck in the trains (some within shouting distance of stations) and faced with wasted time discomfort and other costs.
The fact is that service has to improve – that means that RapidKL has to become accountable for its operations – including on time performance and other KPIs
If RapidKL is not accountable to the Minister of Transport, then who should it be accountable to?
Perhaps it is time for commuters to get together and launch class-action lawsuits against RapidKL, in order to get compensation for their losses.
But you would think that this would not be necessary. It is that hard for the government and RapidKL to listen to the frustrations of 300,000 stranded commuters?
Transit Malaysia 
10 replies on “Commuters face two more LRT service disruptions. TRANSIT says “enough is enough”!”
Is it just me, or is Rapidkl’s website is very poor in updates, especially information pertaining to bus routes. Most of the information there are outdated and does not reflect the changes to each individual bus route. Nowadays, most rapidKL trunk now goes all the way in to the city. Also that a number of the routes displayed have already been discontinued or converted to other routes.
RapidKL should really get their act together and ensure that those that maintain the website work hand in hand with those who conduct daily operations. I suggest that rapidKL have a centralized command, not some call centre, but a place where their staff will have to report to and give info on all changes to the service every half hour. While those at command will then analyze this info and update their website. RapidKL should not make the mistake and allow their website to simply be a post board for information, but a live cable news channel with updates constantly streaming in.
There are many benefits to having a website that is fed with proper updates.
To be frank RapidKL’s website is a mess, RapidKL should consider having some other guy design their website, and ensure that the components need to control it, databases and the input of recent changes be made easy for their staff. And by god educate them to use the facility to connect to us. This way those in charge, may themselves be allowed review and correct any error or changes that may happen.
In best interest, I hope RapidKL will consider mimicking MBTA’s website, http://www.mbta.com/ . If you were to visit it you will find immediately all the info that is related to travelling by public transportation in Boston. What I really like about this is that it does not have a ridiculous section called newsroom where the visitor is expected to sift through news articles to find changes in RapidKL policy. It should be the job of the person in charge of maintaining the website to convert this garble to clear and concise info. Another thing I would like to highlight is how MBTA use google’s map service to give an interactive map of each bus route. And for the rapid staff who does the printing of pamphlets take a good look at their pamphlets in PDF. There is a lot we can learn. Also I really like their customer support section where it subdivides in to further sections such as “write to the top” and “customer bill of rights” which I believe needs little explaining.
There is no reason why we can’t mimic them or eventually out do them. A good website does not have to be flashy and be full of ads. Make it simple, make it concise, and remember who your target audiences are and what your purpose is.
Moaz thank you, and please help me forward this message to rapidKL. And pressure them to take heed.
@poko
We will try our best. Thanks for the support.
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
Hi Moaz,
The KJ lrt service was down again this evening, 7/29. I was at KLCC station about 8.25 and it was so congested. RapidKL still does not know how to give passengers accurate information. They just say service interuption. There are no staff to assist and answer passengers questions at the stations entrance. The queue was from the ticket counter right up to the machines. The rapidkl security and ticket counter staff were giving conflicting info. The security guy said going to Kelana is OK but the ticket counter girl said train only going to gombak. The ticket counter girl even had the audacity to say that this is the first breakdown this month. Wow, Are they all sleeping during previous breakdowns this month?
Moaz, please help us and get RapidKL to respond to this answers:
Why the frequent service disruptions several times a month during evening and morning rush hours?
What is the root cause of the problem?
Why don’t they get to the bottom of the problem and fix it once and for all?
Why they don’t deploy more staff at the station’s entrance to help passengers?
Why can’t they have even 1 month of problem free service?
Something is wrong somewhere and RapidKL needs to fix it fast.
Al
Thank you for the update. As I said earlier, Zul from TRANSIT was stuck at Pasar Seni.
Basically we can say that the problem is a lack of accountability and we are going to continue to push RapidKL, Prasarana, SPAD and the Ministry of Transport on this issue.
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
There was another delay at the Kelana Jaya Line on 29/07/2010 around 6pm, and also the next day around 9am. Both delays happened during peak hours.
Thanks for the update. Zul from TRANSIT was stuck at Pasar Seni LRT station and believe me, he called up RapidKL to give them a piece of his mind.
As always, if you were stuck or affected by the delay, please send as much detailed information as possible to klangvalley.transit@gmail.com. We will forward this email to our contacts at SPAD and RapidKL.
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
Given another hell of a ride by the Kelana Jaya Line. On 18:07 this evening, 149 pulled into Taman Melati Station for a Kelana Jaya bound trip. At Setiawangsa Station, the train remained stationary for more than 2 minutes. At 18:20, it pulled into Dato Keramat Station. It remained stationary for a long time. At 18:27, an announcement told passengers that there was congestion in the tunnel and hence trains will be moving slower and stopping longer at stations, and normal service will resume shortly. 10 minutes later, it was announced that there are technical difficulties which will prolong till at least 19:00. As the train remained stationary, many came out of the tunnel and pulled into Damai Station. Passengers were cleared and the empty train re-entered the tunnel. After the train finally moved at 18:42, passengers to Kelana Jaya and Gombak were told to board shuttle services at Pasar Seni, Kg Baru and Damai Stations. When the train reached Kg Baru, a long queue was visible at the platform. All passengers towards Kelana Jaya were told to clear the train and passengers toward Gombak were told to remain. Many confused passengers spend minutes quizzing RapidKL employees, and hence the train remained stationary at the platform for more than 5 minutes. RapidKL employees expalined that the train will only cycle between Kg Baru and Damai Stations only. Passengers toward Kelana Jaya will have to disembark and wait for the Pasar Seni bound train and make a switch again at Pasar Seni Station. Passengers toward Gombak shall remain onboard and switch at Damai Station. After the boarding and disembarking process was done, the train starts the return to Damai. 2 minutes later, 136 arrived from Pasar Seni. Passengers toward Gombak cleared the train and passengers toward Kelana Jaya boarded the train. As 136 reached Pasar Seni at 19:10, passsengers toward Kelana Jaya were told to clear the train and passengers toward Gombak were told to board. Then, 136 starts the return to Kg Baru, leaving passengers toward Kelana Jaya waiting in vain for their train. When the train from Kelana Jaya arrived, passengers toward Gombak were told to clear the train abd passengers toward Kelana Jaya were told to board.
In other words, a whole Terminal Putra – Kelana Jaya trip takes 4 trains instead of one. 😥
Dear Passengers,
I am heartbroken to hear of your woos. Actually, I was going to write to the authorities about updating my letter dated on July 19, 2009 regarding about having the main exit door of the Taman Bahagia Station renovated to the other side of the building if ever works on the Kelana-Subang line is to be carried out. I was thinking of collecting signatures from my neigbours to support my plans. In fact some of my neighbours thought my stopping of the line from Kelana Jaya to Subang was a right thing as traffic congestions and noise pollution have been terrible! However, I thought of finally forwarding both ideas. I will have it done later on.
Lastly, I hope my suggestion to make KL a most advanced bus transportation friendly in the world would be finalized soon.
So sorry for the inconvenience caused to you all.
Rgds
SAM
I am sympathized to those passengers affected too. This problem fall under operational which include schedule maintenance, preventive maintenance, advance public notice, resources planing etc at it most basic function. How could we trust Prasarana to handle the more far-sighted and advance functions as engineering, design & development, (i.e. planning for new LRT route, capacity planing, bottleneck studies, trains enhancement etc) even the day-to-day issues are not ZERO DEFECT or to 6-sigma standard?
Around 8:10 pm tonight sept 20, klcc station was congested. Long lines at ticket machines and ticket counters. Only 3 ticket machines functioning partially. Only 2 ticket counters open to serve passengers stretching until avenue k entrance. I went to the counter to ask the lady to open another counter, she rudely asked me to wait in line. This problem has gone on for years folks! The service never improves! I urge all you guys to stand up and speak out if you want change and service improvement!