This evening, thousands of commuters were left in the lurch after finding their nearest RapidKL LRT station shuttered. Confused and frustrated, they were forced to find other means of getting home.
Unlike the previous disruptions that have plagued the LRT Kelana Jaya line as recently as yesterday night, 7th November (and resolved at 6am this morning), this one seems much more severe as public transportation users were not even allowed to access the station entrances.
Following the online chatter that occurred after many found out about yet another service disruption plaguing the Kelana Jaya line, operators RapidKL has issued an announcement that service between the Kelana Jaya station and Ampang Park is not available.
Commuters are encouraged to find alternative means of transport. However, RapidKL says that free feeder buses (SEWA KHAS) are being provided to help with the overflow, ferrying passengers between the parts of the routes that are still functional: Gombak to Damai, Ara Damansara to Putra Heights.
As of right now, no official clarification as to why the disruption occurred has been provided but we assume it to only be a major mechanical malfunction given the severity and number of stations impacted.
A member of the Carlist.my team fell victim to the disruption but found no feeder bus service provided for the Abdullah Hukum LRT station. RapidKL staff there also said they had not been notified nor did they have information about organising the feeder bus service.
With no alternative, he had to quickly find a ride hailing vehicle. As prices were increasing by the minute and with surging demand given the service disruption, a trip from the Mid Valley to Ara Damansara area costed over about RM47.
In the weeks prior to this, the Kelana Jaya line LRT had been facing noticeable issues causing delays, long intervals between trains, among others.
Update: RapidKL have confirmed that the malfunction stemmed from the automatic train control system (ATC), which has been facing stability issues since the service disruption on Saturday, 5th November 2022.
No service restoration timeline has been provided as of publication, labelled as ‘until further notice’.