Londoner. Urban walker. Public transport. Dog owner. Street food. Now Iloilo province, Philippines, based after 2 years in Perth WA and 5 years in KL Malaysia.
Joined December 2013
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Noting the PM's intervention on LRT.
RapidKL's asset management needs examining with an explanation given why repair cost is 90% of replacement.
How have so many key components reached obsolescence at the same time. Does this show renewal works did not happen progressively?
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The number of trains on both LRT Kelana Jaya and MRT Kajang continues to plummet according to RapidKL's latest figures.
Full fleets sizes are:
KJL ~76
KGL 58
Little surprise that congestion remains a hot topic for users.
What are its short term plans to mitigate this?
A bit of a bleak outlook this evening with 5 minute frequencies on both LRT Kelana Jaya and MRT Kajang.
Have a safe trip.
Although Monday is normally the quietest of the weekdays, starting the week with a five minute frequency on LRT Kelana Jaya is disappointing. It will result in congestion at stations, crowded trains and probably cause localised erratic frequencies.
These daily figures are two weeks overdue. The monthly ridership figures published look ok, albeit with some disappointing reductions on LRT3.
It will be interesting to drill into them when they are finally released.
MRT Kajang, opened in 2017, struggles with so few trains available.
Recently just 35 trains were available, far below the 42 advised by March 2025.
7 trains have been sent for repair, this leaves 16 out of service, with 10 awaiting spares and 3 damaged in accidents.
Not the only delay seen from Prasarana but fortunately one that does not affect its users. The daily ridership due on the 12th October has not yet been uploaded.
ALT screenshot of Prasarana data availble from data.gov.my
It is informative to compare the LRT Kelana Jaya fleet and the Skytrain fleet in Vancouver.
They are similar systems based on LIM technology but with different climates, utilisation, etc.
The Skytrain original fleet have all lasted around 40 years with upgrades.
...
Recently Prasarana advised that the cost of overhauling a train is 90% of a new train. The background and cause for this high figure is not explained.
Vancouver shows this type of train can last 40 years, while those on LRT KJL appear to struggle to last 17 years.
...
Is it reasonable to conclude that deferred investment in proactive fleet upgrades and major overhauls has contributed to the current reliability and capacity challenges?
nst.com.my/amp/news/nation/2…
LRT Kelana Jaya has a poor frequency advised today and will be busy.
Last night a 3 minute frequency was advised, followed by a post advising many trains were unavailable indicating a poor frequency.
Are the public getting the best advice to make informed travel decisions?
MOT Malaysia has traditionally published public transport ridership data quarterly. To continue this approach, a graphic has been prepared bringing these up to to date in Q3 2026.
The recent struggles of LRT Kelana Jaya stand out when compared to 2019.
What trends do you see?
ALT Graphic showing quarterly ridership on RapidRail lines since 2012.
It looks like it will be a struggle with congestion on LRT Kelana Jaya this morning.
Is the root cause many years of under investment in maintaining and renewing the infrastructure? I note this was not addressed in Prasarana’s comments yesterday.
This shows a heavy reliance on a combination of cables and other sensor technology. These probably should be renewed at regular intervals. This requires continuous investment.
Does Vancouver, another LIM system, experience the same problems or is their O&M spend higher?
Some interesting background to Prasarana’s problems on LRT Kelana Jaya.
It appears this year has worsened significantly. There are some insights into numbers of trains and the reasons for emergency braking.
bernama.com/bm/news.php?id=2…
The advised 4.5 minute frequency is a 33% capacity reduction from a 3 minute frequency. It will be a very crowded morning, take care on your journey.
Let's hope the RM3.4bn announced in the budget improves this.
businesstoday.com.my/2026/10…
A 3 minute frequency on LRT Kelana Jaya is welcome on a Monday morning.
But MRT Kajang is only at 5 minutes. This seems to cause more problems in the evening.
Here are the latest train availability from RapidKL. Too few trains means a poor frequency.
KJL 48 of 76
KGL 36 of 58
The budget advised that there are 300,000 My50 pass users.
This is a huge benefit for regular users and a very high take up would be expected.
There are also concessions for OKU, the elderly and children.
Some users are ineligible and it is not intended for irregular users.
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Some journeys include upto 3 trips, such as bus, LRT SA and MRT. Most users do at least two journeys daily with return trips.
At present RapidKL records ~1.4m trips daily.
I wonder:
1 how many users it has each day
2 what % they are of the population?
nst.com.my/amp/news/nation/2…