KL Monorail

KL Monorail KL Monorel

A KL Monorail Train running on an elevated viaduct

No. of stations 11 Type Monorail Line length 8.6 km Service Area Brickfeilds - Bukit Bintang - Chow Kit - Titiwangsa Rolling Stock ALWEG straddle-beam monorail Ticketing TnG, Store Value Ticket Operational Mode With driver Operator KL StarRail Sdn Bhd Owner Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad

APL  MR11 Titiwangsa MR10 Chow Kit MR9 Medan Tuanku KJ26 Dang Wangi  KJL  MR8 Bukit Nanas MR7 Raja Chulan MR6 Bukit Bintang MR5 Imbi  APL  MR4 Hang Tuah  APL  MR3 Maharajalela MR2 Tun Sambanthan Monorail City Depot  KTM Intercity   RSL & SPL   KJL  MR1 KL Sentral  KTM Intercity   RSL & SPL   KEL   KTL   KJL

The KL Monorail is a monorail system (previously known as Peoplemover Rapid Transit - PRT) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, opened August 31, 2003, and serves 11 stations running 8.6 km with two parallel elevated tracks. It connects the Kuala Lumpur Sentral transport hub with the "Golden Triangle". It was completed at a cost of RM1.18 billion by the KL Infrastructure Group (KL Infra).

KL Infra declared bankruptcy on May 15, 2007 after repeatedly missing loan repayments. On November 29, 2007, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB) has signed a sale and purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd (KLMS). The current operator for the KL Monorail system is KL StarRail Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SPNB.

According to the Ministry of Transport Malaysia 2008 Statistics, the annual ridership for RapidKL Monorail was 21,765,233.^[1]

Contents 1 Design 1.1 Line and stations 1.2 Rolling stock 2 History 2.1 Government takeover 2.2 David Cheliah accident 2.3 Burst tyre incident 3 Ridership 4 Expansion 5 Criticism 5.1 Integration with other lines 5.2 Poor ergonomics 5.3 Expensive rides 5.4 Poor planning in construction of viaducts 6 Social Responsibility 7 Gallery 8 See also 9 References 10 External links 10.1 Route Maps

Design

Line and stations

The KL Monorail system consists of a single dual-way line that serves a total of 11 stations located along the southeast and northeast regions of Kuala Lumpur that had previously receive insufficient access to rail transport, namely Brickfields, Bukit Bintang, Bukit Nanas, Chow Kit and Titiwangsa. Only the line's two terminus stations run along a single track. Of the 11 stations, 4 are designated as "integrated stations" that are used as interchanges to and from the Ampang Line, Kelana Jaya Line or other transit services provided at Kuala Lumpur Sentral.

The stations themselves are largely designed in the same fashion, as elevated structures with a ticketing facilities on either the ground level (as seen in the KL Sentral station), or the first level. The platforms are located on the top floor, separated from the monorail lines with fencing and covered with a large cream canvas roof. Certain stations are situated above roadways, or are slightly longer than others. Each station is also designated with a sponsor, with route maps associating each station with a particular company.

The line's train depot is located between the KL Sentral and Tun Sambanthan stations.

Rolling stock

The system utilises permanently coupled 2-car trains with similar styling and designs as the Seattle Center Monorail's ALWEG trains.^[2] The KL Monorail trains are capable of accommodating 158 passengers each during regular operations. The monorail carriages themselves were constructed by MTrans, a Malaysian monorail manufacturer,^[2] at the MTrans plant in Rawang, which also featured its own tracks for monorail train tests.^[3]

History

The monorail's construction was initiated by Hitachi, Ltd., but the 1997 East Asian financial crisis led to cessation of work in December 1997. When work was resumed in July 1998, MTrans Holdings took over, locally manufacturing its own rolling stock and completing the project to save cost;^[2] the line was completed at a cost of RM1.18 billion. As the line was opened in 2003, it was agreed that the parent company and owner of the KL Monorail, KL Infrastructure Group, would hold a 40-year concession to operate the monorail. The line and number of stations remains unchanged since 2003.

Since the start of the KL Monorail's operations, the KL Infrastructure Group suffered losses due largely to depreciation and interest repayment costs.^[4] For the financial year ending April 30, 2004 alone, KL Infra posted a net loss of RM46.24 million on a RM15.08 million revenue.^[5] KL Infra had also taken up a RM300 million Malaysian government loan and a RM260 million infrastructure loan from the Development Bank of Malaysia (Malay: Bank Pembangunan Malaysia, BPM). In addition, KL Infra had proposed to buy MTrans' three subsidiary companies to improve its business, but failed after the Scomi Group bought up some of the targeted companies.^[4]

Government takeover

In April 2007, talks were underway between KL Infra and the government and the Development Bank of Malaysia to sell the assets and liabilities of the KL Monorail to the National Infrastructure Company (Syarikat Prasarana Negara, SPN), which already owns both the Kelana Jaya Line and the Ampang Line, as well as 10% of KL Infra shares. KL Infra was cited as intending to exit Malaysia's monorail business. The takeover is part of the government's master plan to improve the urban public transport sector.^[4][6]

SPN gave its agreement in principle to the takeover of KL Monorail on December 22, 2006 and a follow-up meeting was held on February 6, 2007 with the government on the takeover of its operational assets and assumption of loan liabilities. A due diligence audit was conducted from March 5, 2007 to April 27, 2007 by consultants appointed by the government. Following the agreement to the takeover, BPM granted to KL Monorail an extension of time until April 29, 2007 for an interest repayment amounting to RM4,244,801.91 which was originally due on December 29, 2006.^[7]

However, the takeover seemed to have suffered a setback at least from the perspective of KL Infra when on March 26, 2007, it was notified by BPM that it was not going to entertain any further extensions for interest repayment. Subsequently on April 27, 2007, the bank notified that it would not be granting any moratorium on interest repayments. On April 29, 2007, KL Monorail was not able to make the repayment of the interest installment which had become due.^[7]

On May 3, 2007, KL Monorail was issued a default notice by BPM which sought repayment of the entire principal sum of RM609,616,423.73 and capitalised interest of RM296,428,910.88 totalling RM906,045,334.61. The company was granted seven days from that day to repay the entire sum, which it failed to do. On May 14, 2007, Mohd Anwar Bin Yahya and Cho Choo Meng were appointed receivers and managers by Amanah Raya, the Security Trustee for BPM. Nevertheless, the takeover process is still deemed on-going with KL Infra stating that it will continue to engage the government and BPM to address the proposed takeover of KL Monorail by SPNB based on earlier discussions and an approval in principle.^[8]

One of the effects of the appointment of receivers and managers is the possibility that KL Infra will not be receiving any compensation for KL Monorail should the takeover by SPN go through.^[9]

The trading of KL Infra was suspended from May 15, 2007.^[10] On the same day, KL Infra's board announced to Bursa Malaysia that it had formed the opinion that it was not solvent and will not be able to pay all its debts in full within a period not exceeding twelve months.^[11]

On November 28, 2007, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd signed a sale and purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd, effectively making SPNB the operator of KL Monorail, and resulting in SPNB taking over the RM882 million BPM loan.^[12]

David Cheliah accident

Prior to the opening of the KL Monorail on 16 August 2002, an accident occurred during a test run involving a 13.4 kg safety wheel from a train falling off and hitting the head of a pedestrian walking under the monorail viaduct at Jalan Sultan Ismail. The victim, Mr. David Cheliah, a journalist by profession, suffered injuries that required hospitalisation. On March 7, 2003, David filed a RM5 million negligence suit against the monorail companies involved in the design, installation and operation of the trains, as well as the Director-General of Railways.^[13][14]

On 8 April 2009, the High Court ruled that the Monorail company was liable for incident but not the Director-General of Railways. The matter was settled out of court under undisclosed terms. Although the monorail company reported that any such accident was "unlikely" as 6 bolts would have to be removed for it to occur and furthermore, a check of all 23 other safety wheels on the train involved did not turn up any other issues, the high court judgement ruled that the monorail company "failed to provide a reasonable explanation as to how the safety wheel had come off the train and instead relied on the possibility that there had been tampering by unknown persons."^[15][16]

As a result of this accident, the launch of the monorail was postponed.

Burst tyre incident

On 22 January 2005, a pneumatic load tyre suddenly burst and caused two women passengers to be injured. The train, carrying about 30 passengers, was about to move from the Chow Kit Road station to the Titiwangsa station when the incident occurred at about 8.50pm. The burst tyre caused a rubber sidewall panel to flip open which then hit the side of a passenger seat and injured a woman's legs and another woman's hands. Train services were suspended for about 30 minutes following the incident.^[17][18]

Ridership

The monthly ridership has increased from 341,850 passengers in September 2003 to 1.18 million passengers in August 2004. In 2005, ridership averaged 45,000 passengers per day^[2], trending down to 36,000 in 2008.^[19] In August 2008, the monorail attained its 80 millionth passenger since its opening.^[20] On 29 July 2009, the monorail reportedly reached the 100 million passenger mark.^[21]

The maximum capacity of the monorail is 244 at full load with 48 people sitting and 196 standing. There are 10 unit of 2 car trains in service.

Expansion

The KL Monorail system has been designed to accommodate future expansion. The system's stations are significantly longer than the current monorail train set, allowing ample room for more cars for each monorail train. Any introduction of longer or larger monorail trains would help alleviate passenger congestion in trains and stations.

In 2004, a shuttle line from the Tun Sambanthan station to the Mid Valley Megamall and an extension of the southern end of the line closer to Kuala Lumpur Sentral were also proposed,^[22] but was not approved, as of December 2009.

Criticism

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Integration with other lines

The Klang Valley rail transit system are not seamlessly integrated for ticketing or changing trains. The monorail, the newest component of the system, has been publicly criticised over the way its stations have been connected to the other systems. The KL Sentral monorail station is 140 metres away from the main KL Sentral building, separated by what was previously a giant car park (Lot G, KL Sentral) and a busy road. Lot G is currently being developed and users now have to detour around the construction site to reach KL Sentral. While this current pathway leading to KL Sentral is covered, the previous path through Lot G was uncovered.

Until late 2008, stalls for petty traders were put up along the covered pathway causing the pathway to be crowded, poorly ventilated and difficult to navigate due to poor signage^{[citation needed]}.

The KL Monorail has accepted Touch 'n Go cards since August 2005 and the integrated RapidKL monthly pass since December 2009.

Poor ergonomics

Not many escalators have been provided. Platforms are narrow and ventilation is poor. Users have to walk up and down many stairs to reach the platform. "Overhead bridges" allow passengers to cross from one platform to another, confirming the monorail's reputation of it being merely a joy-ride.^{[citation needed]} The stations are also devoid of support for disabled passengers, lacking elevators or wheelchair lifts along the stairs.

In terms of the rolling stock, the ride is bumpy and there have been safety concerns^{[citation needed]}, especially after the David Cheliah incident. The seating configuration, where seats are arranged in the middle of the carriage, have been criticised as it encourages standing passengers to stand by the doors and not move into the middle of the carriages, causing congestion when passengers embark or disembark.

Platforms are narrow and roofs are low causing uncomfortable waits for trains. Navigating the station involves climbing many short flights of steps. Escalators, when present at all, only head upwards.

Weaknesses in design and planning is evident at busy stations such as at KL Sentral. For example, at rush hour on a rainy day, passengers transferring from the monorail station to the main KL Sentral building have to cross busy Jalan Tun Sambanthan using a signalled crossing. Commuters would have to crowd at the station entrance before crossing the road.

Expensive rides

Ticket prices have also been criticised.^{[citation needed]} Compared to other similar journeys of similar distances on other modes of rail transport in the Klang Valley, monorail ticket prices are the highest. For example, a one station ride from Bukit Bintang to Imbi (a walking distance) is RM1.20, while a longer one station ride from Masjid Jamek to Pasar Seni on the Kelana Jaya Line costs RM1.00.

Poor planning in construction of viaducts

Columns supporting the rails have been poorly placed at a few locations. Most notably is at Jalan Sultan Ismail of which the parts between Bukit Bintang and Jalan P Ramlee are one way. The columns have been constructed in the middle of the road, before it was turned one way, so much so that in spite of Jalan Sultan Ismail being one way, it remains a dual carriageway. This has been potentially confusing for road users.

Social Responsibility

The monorail is no stranger to Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, having organized activities such as an on-site blood donation drive, free health screening, and youth training programs, in recent times.

In line with the Malaysian government's call to build up a ‘caring Malaysian society’, the KL Monorail implemented the Pets@Monorail program in 2009, aimed at encouraging and teaching children to become caring and responsible members of society via instilling a sense of awareness and appreciation towards animals. Under this program, each station adopts and houses certain animals or pets for display, for example, the Hang Tuah station hosts a Lop Ear Rabbit and a Jersey Wooly Rabbit while the Imbi station has a Bearded Dragon Red Iguana.^[23]

Gallery

KL Monorail at Tun Sambanthan Station

A view from above of the Bukit Nanas KL Monorail station and adjoining tracks.

Track switch near KL Sentral station.

See also

• Monorails in Malaysia
• Public transport in Kuala Lumpur
• List of rapid transit systems

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kuala Lumpur Monorail

• Official KL Monorail website. (up and running)
• Kuala Lumpur Monorail - a Photo Essay at the Monorail Society.

Route Maps

• Route search - Interactive transport guide of Kuala Lumpur Rail Transit System
• Train Journey Planner & Fare Calculator from thepricechat.com
• Route Map from malaysiaexpat.com
• Route Map from ktmb.com.my
• Route Map from prasarana.com.my

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