Glitch delays LRT commuters

KUALA LUMPUR: Hundreds of commuters went home late yesterday after a technical glitch caused trains on the Kelana Jaya LRT line to slow down to a crawl. 

The problem, which occurred at 5pm, saw trains plying between the Ampang Park and Datuk Keramat stations to move slowly, resulting in delays and overcrowding at the KL Sentral, KLCC and Ampang Park stations.

Congestion: A technical glitch caused LRT trains to slow down, resulting in commuters like these at the KL Sentral station being delayed in getting home.

Rapid KL general manager Shahril Mokhtar said the trains did not stop running as the technical team tried to solve the problem. 

“What happened was due to some technical fault which caused the trains to move very slowly.  

“The trains were still running, albeit at the slowest speed, and this was for safety reasons,” he said.  

“The delay affected the headway, hence causing congestion at the other stations. So instead of five minutes, trains were arriving at six to seven minutes,” he said.  

As the problem occurred during peak hour, Shahril said many commuters had to queue up for a longer time, and this resulted in overcrowding.