KUALA LUMPUR – Klang Valley commuters were given the excuse that the kinked rail track and cracked pier on the Ampang LRT line near the Bandaraya station were caused by disturbance from construction work at Soho Tower nearby.
But was that really the case?
Apparently, there has been a heavy debate in rail engineering and maintenance circles on the real reason for the train service’s interruption, which affected the 160,000 daily commuters heading to Kuala Lumpur’s central business district.
Sources told The Vibes that initial findings revealed that the damage to the rail track and pier were possibly due to shoddy maintenance work.
“From our initial study, the lateral force wasn’t caused by the nearby construction site,” said the insider, who requested anonymity.
It is learned that the matter was discovered after the incident occurred on early Friday morning of January 27, after nearly 14 days of running rail replacements and follow-up work.
“It was first discovered that some of the track callipers were not properly secured because of insufficient bolts and dreadful finishing on the running rail.
So when the trains passed by the unsecured running rails, the load of the train kinked the track, caused side force to the one of the pot bearings of the guideway, and probably damaged the pier head.
“But so far, the box culvert is not affected,” said the source, adding that a preliminary report before the suspension of the Ampang line highlighted the issue of sub-standard track work between the Bandaraya and Masjid Jamek stations.
A rail expert with over two decades of experience in the industry said that lack of untightened bolts would cause the rail to move and make the train sway.
“If this movement is not tackled immediately, it could derail trains as the rail will give way if there is nothing holding it properly,” he said.
Due to safety concerns, the train service between Bandaraya and Masjid Jamek was suspended and, as an alternative, RapidKL provided free bus service to the commuters between the affected stations.
It also resulted in the Hang Tuah monorail station becoming the focal point of transit to other parts of the city via the monorail service.
How was an assessment made so quickly?
Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd and Land Public Transport Agency (LPTA) stated that preliminary checks found the LRT service interruption was caused by damage to the elevated structure carrying the rail tracks, due to construction work adjacent to the area.
Kuala Lumpur City Hall has issued a stop-work order to the construction of the 44-storey Soho Tower project.
However, a Rapid Rail staffer questioned the excuse provided by the rail regulator that the fault lies with nearby construction works next to the Bandaraya station.
“Has the investigation already identified the source of the problem? There have been plenty of excuses thrown by the Prasarana management lately.
And how is it possible for LPTA to assess the situation so early at this stage when the agency doesn’t have experts such as highly qualified rail and civil engineers and structural engineers?” he said when met at the Ampang depot.
In fact, Prasarana chief operating officer (strategy and development) Prodyut Dutt reportedly said that the engineering consulting firm appointed by the company would take two weeks to complete the investigation on the damage, having started it on February 2.
The insider asserted that kinked rail track incidents on the Ampang and Sri Petaling lines were not new.
“It happened twice before in the last 14 years not far from Plaza Rakyat (station),” he claimed.
At press time, Prasarana CEO Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah, Rapid Rail CEO Amir Hamdan, LPTA director-general Datuk Azlan Shah Al Bakri, and Transport Minister Anthony Loke have yet to respond to The Vibes’ request for comments. – The Vibes, February 9, 2022
