KL Monorail

The Monorail Line is an urban monorail system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It opened on 31 August 2003, with 11 stations running 8.6 km on two parallel elevated tracks. It connects the Kuala Lumpur Sentral transport hub with the "Golden Triangle". It was completed at a cost of MYR 1.18 billion by the KL Infrastructure Group (KL Infra).

KL Infra declared bankruptcy on 15 May 2007 after repeatedly missing loan repayments. On 29 November 2007, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) signed a sale-and-purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd (KLMS). The current operator is RapidKL Rail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prasarana.

According to Ministry of Transport statistics, the annual ridership in 2008 was 21,765,233.

On 1 March 2012, KL Monorail was integrated with the Ampang Line light rail transit when the "paid-up" or restricted areas of the Hang Tuah monorail and LRT stations and Titiwangsa monorail and LRT stations, were physically linked up, allowing transfers without the need to buy new tickets.

Line and stations
The line consists of a single dual-way line that links areas of inner Kuala Lumpur previously not served by rail transport, namely Brickfields, Bukit Bintang and Chow Kit, with pre-existing LRT and/or KTM Komuter stations at KL Sentral, Hang Tuah, Bukit Nanas and Titiwangsa. The two terminis are on a single track.

The stations are designed as elevated structures with ticketing facilities on either the ground level (as seen in the KL Sentral station) or the first-floor level. The platforms are on the top floor, separated from the monorail lines with fencing and covered with a large canvas roof. Certain stations are situated above roadways, or are slightly longer than others. Each station is also designated with a sponsor, with route maps associating each station with a particular product brand.

The depot is between KL Sentral and Tun Sambanthan.

Rolling stock
The line uses permanently coupled two-car trains of a similar design to the Seattle Center Monorail's ALWEG trains. Each monorail train can accommodate 158 passengers during regular operations. The monorail carriages themselves were constructed by MTrans, a Malaysian monorail manufacturer, at the MTrans plant in Rawang, which also featured its own tracks for monorail train tests.

History
Construction was initiated by Hitachi, Ltd., but the 1997 Asian financial crisis led to cessation of work in December 1997. When work was resumed in July 1998, MTrans Holdings took over, locally manufacturing its own rolling stock and completing the project to save cost; the line was completed at a cost of MYR 1.18 billion. As the line was opened in 2003, it was agreed that the parent company and owner of the Monorail Line, KL Infrastructure Group, would hold a 40-year concession to operate the monorail. The line and number of stations remains unchanged since 2003.

Since the start of operations, the KL Infrastructure Group suffered losses due largely to depreciation and interest repayment costs. For the financial year to 30 April 2004, KL Infra posted a net loss of MYR 46.24 million on a MYR 15.08 million revenue. KL Infra had also taken up a MYR 300 million Malaysian government loan and a MYR 260 million infrastructure loan from the Development Bank of Malaysia (Bank Pembangunan Malaysia, BPM). In addition, KL Infra had proposed to buy MTrans' three subsidiary companies to improve its business, but failed after the Scomi bought up some of the targeted companies.

Government takeover
In April 2007, talks were under way between KL Infra and the government and the Development Bank of Malaysia to sell the Monorail Line to the National Infrastructure Company (Syarikat Prasarana Negara, SPN), which already owns both the Kelana Jaya Line and the Ampang Line, as well as 10% of KL Infra shares. KL Infra was cited as intending to exit Malaysia's monorail business. The takeover is part of the government's master plan to improve the urban public transport sector.

SPN gave its agreement in principle to the takeover on 22 December 2006 and a follow-up meeting was held on 6 February 2007 with the government on the takeover of its operational assets and assumption of loan liabilities. A due diligence audit was conducted from 5 March 2007 to 27 April 2007 by consultants appointed by the government. Following agreement to the takeover, BPM granted KL Monorail an extension until 29 April 2007 for an interest repayment amounting to MYR 4,244,801.91, which was originally due on 29 December 2006.

However, the takeover seemed to have suffered a setback at least from the perspective of KL Infra when on 26 March 2007, it was notified by BPM that it was not going to entertain any further extensions for interest repayment. Subsequently on 27 April 2007, the bank notified that it would not be granting any moratorium on interest repayments. On 29 April 2007, KL Monorail was not able to make the repayment of the interest instalment which had become due.

On 3 May 2007, KL Monorail was issued a default notice by BPM which sought repayment of the entire principal sum of MYR 609,616,423.73 and capitalised interest of MYR 296,428,910.88 totalling MYR 906,045,334.61. The company was granted seven days from that day to repay the entire sum, which it failed to do. On 14 May 2007, Mohd Anwar Bin Yahya and Cho Choo Meng were appointed receivers and managers by Amanah Raya, the Security Trustee for BPM. Nevertheless, the takeover process is still deemed ongoing, KL Infra stating that it will continue to engage the government and BPM to address the proposed takeover of KL Monorail by Prasarana based on earlier discussions and an approval in principle.

One of the effects of the appointment of receivers and managers is the possibility that KL Infra will not be receiving any compensation for KL Monorail should the takeover by SPN go through.

The trading of KL Infra was suspended from 15 May 2007. On the same day, KL Infra's board announced to Bursa Malaysia that it had formed the opinion that it was not solvent and would not be able to pay all its debts in full within a period not exceeding twelve months.

On 28 November 2007, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd signed a sale-and-purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd, effectively making Prasarana the operator of KL Monorail, and resulting in Prasarana taking over the MYR 882 million BPM loan.

David Cheliah accident
Prior to the opening, on 16 August 2002 an accident occurred during a test run involving a 13.4 kg safety wheel falling off a train and hitting the head of a pedestrian walking under the monorail viaduct at Jalan Sultan Ismail. The victim, David Cheliah, a journalist, suffered injuries that required hospitalisation. On 7 March 2003, he filed a MYR 5 million negligence suit against the companies involved in the design, installation and operation of the trains, as well as the Director-General of Railways.

On 8 April 2009, the High Court ruled that the Monorail company was liable for the incident, but not the Director-General of Railways. The matter was settled out of court under undisclosed terms. Although the monorail company reported that any such accident was "unlikely" as six bolts would have to be removed for it to occur and furthermore, a check of all 23 other safety wheels on the train involved did not turn up any other issues, the high court judgement ruled that the monorail company "failed to provide a reasonable explanation as to how the safety wheel had come off the train and instead relied on the possibility that there had been tampering by unknown persons".

As a result of this accident, the launch of the monorail was postponed.

Burst tyre incident
On 22 January 2005, a pneumatic load tyre suddenly burst and caused two women passengers to be injured. The train, carrying about 30 passengers, was about to move from the Chow Kit Road station to the Titiwangsa station when the incident occurred at about 8.50pm. The burst tyre caused a rubber sidewall panel to flip open which then hit the side of a passenger seat and injured a woman's legs and another woman's hands. Train services were suspended for about 30 minutes following the incident.

Breakdown
On 11 August 2012, a train stalled near Tun Sambanthan in Brickfields. The breakdown caused 183 passengers to be trapped for about two hours. The air conditioning system in the carriage was stopped when the power supply was cut. As a result, some passengers had to break the windows to allow air in while awaiting rescue. Fire and Rescue Department personnel later used a skylift to rescue passengers trapped in the carriage. Investigation revealed that the issue was due to a power supply disruption at the circuit breaker, causing caused the auxiliary power system to fail.

Six days later, another break-down occurred. A train stalled between Imbi and Bukit Bintang for about 30 minutes, trapping around 200 passengers. This time however, there was power in the train and the air conditioning system was functional. The train services resumed after half an hour.

Ridership
The monthly ridership increased from 341,850 passengers in September 2003 to 1.18 million passengers in August 2004. In 2005, ridership averaged 45,000 passengers per day, trending down to 36,000 in 2008. In August 2008, the monorail attained its 80 millionth passenger since its opening. On 29 July 2009, the monorail reportedly reached the 100 million passenger mark.

The maximum capacity is 244 at full load with 48 people sitting and 196 standing. There are 10 units of two-car trains in service.

Expansion
In 2004, a shuttle line from the Tun Sambanthan to the Mid Valley Megamall and an extension of the southern end closer to Kuala Lumpur Sentral were also proposed, but was not approved, as of December 2009. The monorail will not be extended to Kuala Lumpur Sentral, but a link-bridge will probably be built to link to the Nu Shopping Mall and Kuala Lumpur Sentral.

To some extent, the line has been designed to accommodate future expansion. While some stations are significantly longer than the current 2-car sets, providing room for longer train sets, extension works for other stations have been necessary. Such extensions have been observable as of May 2012, where RapidKL will be introducing the 4-car train set by the end of 2012.



Lack of integration with other lines
The rail transit lines in the Klang Valley were conceived and built as independent entities, with no thought initially being given to integrating them for ticketing or interchange purposes. The monorail, the newest component of the system, has been criticised for the poor connections between its stations and other systems. The KL Sentral monorail station is 140 metres away from the main KL Sentral building, separated by what was previously a giant car park (Lot G, KL Sentral) and a busy road.

The line has accepted Touch 'n Go cards since August 2005 and the integrated RapidKL monthly pass since December 2009.

Poor ergonomics
Not many escalators have been provided. Users have to walk up and down many stairs to reach the platform. The stations are devoid of facilities for disabled passengers, lacking elevators or wheelchair lifts.

The seating configuration of the trains, where seats are arranged in the middle of the carriage, has been criticised as it encourages standing passengers to stand by the doors and not move into the middle of the carriages, causing congestion when passengers embark or disembark.

High fares
Compared to other journeys of similar distances on other modes of rail transport in the Klang Valley, monorail ticket prices are higher. For example, a one-station journey on the monorail from Bukit Bintang to Imbi (a walking distance) is MYR 1.20. A longer one-station ride from Masjid Jamek to Pasar Seni on the Kelana Jaya Line costs only MYR 1.00, whereas a two-station ride from Ampang to Cempaka on the Ampang Line costs only MYR 0.70.

Social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility initiatives have been organized in activities such as an on-site blood donation drive, free health screening, and youth training programmes.

The line implemented the Pets@Monorail programme in 2009, where each station adopted and housed animals or pets for display. This was part of an effort to instill a greater sense of awareness and appreciation towards animals in children, as well as to serve as a general attraction for users.

Route Maps

 * Route search - Interactive transport guide of Kuala Lumpur public transport system
 * Train Journey Planner & Fare Calculator from thepricechat.com
 * Route Map from malaysiaexpat.com
 * Route Map from ktmb.com.my
 * Route Map from prasarana.com.my
 * Route Map from stesensentral.com