ANTHONY Loke is confident that the Rapid KL monorail passenger numbers, which have more than halved to just 31,000 daily, will rebound following the refurbishment of its four-car trains.

In 2013 and 2014, daily numbers were recorded at about 75,000. However, the figure plummeted in the first quarter of this year.

“Of course it will take time for this to increase, but with the four-car trains, we look forward to a progressive rise,” said the transport minister in Kuala Lumpur today.

After years of dispute, three sets of Prasarana Malaysia Bhd and Scomi Group Bhd’s refurbished four-car trains were rolled out today.

Another two sets will be delivered by November.

In December 2010, Prasarana and Scomi’s wholly owned subsidiary, Scomi Engineering, entered a RM494 million contract for the Kuala Lumpur Fleet Monorail Expansion project, which was terminated six years later.

An agreement was reached between Prasarana and Scomi unit Scomi Transit Project Sdn Bhd (STP) on the acquisition of 12 sets of four-car trains, construction of a depot and upgrading of facilities at monorail stations.

However, STP failed to deliver 10 sets of four-car trains, including seven for revenue service, by December 31, 2015, as stated in a supplementary agreement.

This led to Prasarana terminating the contract in June 2016.

A new settlement deal was inked on April 4 this year, marking an end to the dispute between Prasarana and Scomi.

Under the settlement, STP must repair five sets of four-car trains that stopped operating in January last year, and Prasarana will acquire seven sets of four-car trains.

Prasarana will have to pay Scomi RM181million for the refurbishment of the five train sets.

Meanwhile, Prasarana will only go ahead with the acquisition of the seven sets after putting the five sets to test, for a period of six months.

“The monorail services have been one of our major challenges in improving urban public transport due to setbacks encountered in the past during the implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Monorail Expansion Plan,” said Loke.

“What we faced today was due to prolonged legal tussles stretching over more than five years under the previous administration.

“There were also multiple safety incidents that forced the regulator to stop all the four-carriage trains from operation. From around 2017 onwards, it went from bad to worse,” he added.

Loke said it took the government a while to fix legacy issues and untangle the problems, to put the project on track.

He added that he has listened to passenger complaints, mostly about the uncomfortable and cramped conditions of the old trains, which he has ridden himself.

The refurbished train sets are also expected to provide relief to peak period overcrowding as wait time will be shorter. – August 20, 2019.