KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Public transport service operators must have their own experts to quickly identify and resolve disruptions or technical problems in their operating system.
Transport engineering expert from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Dr Amiruddin Ismail said operators of public transport services, especially those that have been operating in the country for a long time, should already have trained local experts.
“Perhaps this is a major damage, so we need the services of a foreign expert to repair it. The experts in our country may not have reached the level of expertise required to handle such major repairs.
“Whatever the case, we need to make sure that our country has resident experts to handle problems like this because it has started running Light Rail Transit (LRT) train services since 1998, approximately 24 years ago,” he said when appearing on the “Malaysia Petang Ini” programme broadcast by Bernama TV today.
LRT train services between Kelana Jaya and Ampang Park stations were suspended for seven days starting from 6am today, after taking into account passenger safety and the time it will take to identify the cause of service disruption.
Prasarana Group chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah was reported to have said that the main issue with the Automatic Train Control System (ATC) has not been identified and hoped with the expected arrival of help tomorrow from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) Thales Group from Canada and Dubai, repairs can be expedited.
UKM’s Amiruddin also recommended that the parties involved be more prepared in terms of service management to ensure that commuters continue to enjoy services in the event of disruption or technical problems faced by the LRT system.
“We need to make contingency plans and preparations such as a large bus system so that users can continue to get service without interruption,” he said.
