Trains in LRT collision removed from crash site

The two LRT trains involved in a collision on Monday were successfully removed from the crash site this morning, three days earlier than scheduled, says Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.

Wee, in a post on Facebook, said the process of removing the two trains was completed ahead of schedule after staff worked three shifts non-stop.

“(Train) TR40 safely reached Subang depot at 3.45am while TR81 arrived at Gombak tail track at 4.51am. Prasarana will focus on track repair work from Kg Baru station to KLCC station.

“However, the recovery team had to ‘power down’ the entire stretch involved, namely from Dang Wangi station to Damai station, which involved five stations,” he said, adding that the five stations involved were Damai, KLCC, Ampang Park, Kampung Baru and Dang Wangi.

He said the Land Public Transport Agency would conduct an inspection to confirm the track’s safety once repair work is completed.

“For the LRT operations today, given the effect of powering down and the closure of one track after the incident, there is a bottleneck because operations are conducted using only one track from Damai station to Pasar Seni station (involving seven LRT stations). The time taken for a train to pass through the stretch is 16 minutes.

“However, the ‘platoon’ method will be used to allow two trains entering the track in the same direction to reduce the bottleneck situation,” he said.

Wee also said 58 LRT trains for the Kelana Jaya line would be fully operational without frequency reduction as announced yesterday after visiting the operations control centre.

He assured that Prasarana would work hard to repair the track today so that the Kelana Jaya line can be fully restored soon.

Wee said once the tracks are repaired, there would be no more bottlenecks and LRT services would operate at 50% capacity as required during the movement control order period with SOPs tightened until June 7 without reducing frequency.

In the 8.45pm incident on Monday, a total of 47 passengers were reported to be seriously injured while 166 escaped with minor injuries, when a train carrying passengers and another train, said to have been test-driven following a fault, collided in a tunnel between the Kampung Baru and KLCC stations.