KTM Update: Major disruption of services at Kuala Lumpur Station but not a tweet from KTMB (Update #1)

Update: KTM services through Kuala Lumpur station were restored as of 2pm Sunday, 17 July 2011 – but when will our faith in KTMB be restored?

TRANSIT took note of this announcement from Bernama about a serious disruption of KTM services because of a crane collapse at the Kuala Lumpur rail station.

Thank goodness no one was injured!

We note that although the incident happened early Saturday morning, even by the time of our late posting (Sunday morning), KTMB has not bothered to update their website or their twitter feed @twitktmb with information about what had happened. They did update their Facebook page at 7:52 am (more than 7 hours later), but that is not enough (and not easily noticeable for those who visit the regular website).

We learned of the disruption from another unofficial source, @ktmtu (KTM Traffic Updates) which is not affiliated with KTMB.

Disruption of KTM services at KL station (The Star & Bernama)

Saturday July 16, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR: All Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) services passing Kuala Lumpur station were disrupted after a crane toppled at platform 4 at KM 387.3 at 12.44am Saturday.

The incident occurred when the 60 tonne crane was removing advertising billboards and unipoles near the station’s platform 4.

“The crane failed to stabilise and toppled on the roof and electrification cables at platform 4, 3 and 2, rendering them impassable. Only platform 1 can be used,” KTMB said in a statement Saturday.

No casualties were reported but work to remove the structure, cleaning and re-installation of damaged cables will go on until Monday.

KTM will provide a bus service to transfer train passengers from Bank Negara station to KL Sentral and from KL Sentral to Bank Negara for the onward journey.

For ETS service from KL Sentral to Ipoh, it will start and end at Sentul station while the Seremban-Ipoh service will end at KL Sentral station and passengers will board buses to Sentul station to proceed.

The bus service starts at 6am until the last service at 11.45pm and services will continue until the clean-up is completed.

For KTM Cargo and Intercity services, it will only operate one line at platform 1 and will slow down near the scene causing passengers delay of 30 minutes to one hour. – Bernama

TRANSIT Says:
As usual, TRANSIT is extremely disappointed to see that KTMB has missed out on another opportunity to communicate with their customers by informing them about the incident which has led to a serious disruption of KTMB services.

We have heard so much about how KTMB employees are doing their best, that they are stuck in tough circumstances etc. However, what we are seeing is an organization that does not care to communicate with their customers outside of traditional means (statements to the media) which often do not reach the public in time.

In the “real world” this is not acceptable, but it seems to us that despite its corporatization, KTMB does not operate in the real world where it must be accountable to its customers. What makes it worse is that the government regulator SPAD continues to do nothing to demand responsibility from KTMB so that customers are at least better informed.

Contrast this with RapidKL and RapidPenang, which actively reach out to, communicate with and inform their passengers using their respective twitter feeds (@MyRapidKL and @RapidPg) as well as other forms of traditional and social media.

We need a real effective client’s charter and more accountability for KTMB. Until then, perhaps KTMB should change its website from ktmb.com.my to ktmb.gov.my … because right now it seems that KTMB cannot really call itself a commercial organization that cares for its customers.