By Nasuha Badrul Huzaini
SHAH ALAM, Nov 9 — Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) candidate for the Petaling Jaya parliamentary seat Lee Chean Chung has called on the Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd (Rapid Rail) chief executive officer to resign due to severe negligence caused by the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) service suspension.
He said the seven-day disruption between the Kelana Jaya and Ampang Park stations has caused serious difficulties and unbearable suffering for thousands of commuters who are relying on its services.
Lee, who is also the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) Communication director, has urged a third-party technical audit to be conducted to investigate the root cause of the series of disruptions in order to restore public trust in the country’s public transportation system.
“If the escalators in LRT stations take months to repair, the public has the right to know the truth of the situation.
“If such disruptions are discovered to have been avoidable, Rapid Rail and MyRapid should be slapped with hefty fines,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Lee also urged for a better solution to address the public transport issue following the LRT suspension.
“Where is our caretaker Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong whose ministry is in charge of the rail operator, Prasarana Malaysia Berhad? We did not see him (on the ground), is he still busy politicking? Who is going to take care of the people’s welfare?
“I have requested RapidKL and the Petaling Jaya City Council to increase the feeder buses’ frequency throughout seven days of the LRT suspension.
“Apart from that, I would advise the public to download the Moovit app so that they can plan their journey. The app also provides PJ City and Smart Selangor bus routes for the convenience of the users,” he said in a video posted on Facebook, today.
In a post shared along with the video, Lee said he went to the Asia Jaya LRT station this morning to observe the situation and he regarded the long suspension of the train service as a serious matter.
“In the meantime, RapidKL has provided feeder buses as a temporary solution while waiting for the system to be repaired and maintained,” he added.
Earlier today, Rapid Rail in a statement said the cause of the disruption to the electronic components of the Automatic Train Control System (ATC) on the LRT Kelana Jaya Line service has yet to be identified.
It said that the disruption, which resulted in the loss of signal between the control centre and trains, caused the trains to be dysfunctional automatically between the LRT Kelana Jaya Station and LRT Ampang Park Station.
