Trains involved in accident successfully removed - Wee

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Light Rail Transit (LRT) trains involved in a collision on Monday have successfully been removed from the crash site this morning, three days earlier than scheduled, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

Wee, in a posting on his Facebook account, said the process of removing the two trains managed to be completed earlier after the staff worked on three shifts non-stop.

"(Train) TR40 has safely reached Subang depot at 3.45 am while TR81 has arrived at Gombak tail track at 4.51 am. 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 (APAD) would conduct an inspection to confirm the track's safety once the repair work completed.

"For the LRT operations today, given the effect of 'power down' and a 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.

Apart from that, Wee 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 (OCC).

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

Wee said once the tracks were repaired, there would be no more bottlenecks and LRT services would operate at 50 per cent capacity as required during the Movement Control Order 3.0 period with standard operating procedures tightened until June 7 without reducing frequency.

In the 8.45 pm 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.

-- BERNAMA