For nearly 30 years, Prasarana Sdn. Bhd. has been appointed the responsibility over RapidKL, who oversees affairs of public transportation in the Klang Valley. Services such as the LRT, MRT and Rapid Bus were introduced to provide accessible public transportation to the residents of the Valley. With the introduction of these services, residents of the Valley are easily and regularly able to commute to places of work, residence and leisure without overclocking Kuala Lumpur’s already bad traffic conditions.
As of recent times however, Prasarana has failed to keep up with the maintenance of service quality and safety measures of their facilities. Infrastructure of such importance should not be allowed to deteriorate to the extent that it has currently.
Recently, Anthony Loke made a statement in parliament talking about the “aging trains” being the cause of the dwindling quality of the train services. This excuse singles out one element of public transport infrastructure as the root cause of a larger issue rather than addressing the lack of maintenance for the other components of the public transport system.
Previously this week, the Kelana Jaya train line had been facing back-to-back disruptions, stalling workers’ journeys to and from work. As a result, train stations along the line became more overcrowded than they already were. This became more severe when train stations such as Bukit Jalil LRT Station were shut down completely due to a sudden loss of electricity at that station. This incident soon led to a notable uproar on social media, sparking widespread public frustration online.
Last year, there were multiple incidents of people falling onto the tracks at LRT stations and getting run over by a train; prominent examples include a visually impaired man who was fatally injured at Titiwangsa LRT Station (22nd February 2025) and another victim who lost his life at Pusat Bandar Puchong LRT Station (3rd June 2025). To these incidents, promises were made to install Platform Screen Doors (PSDs) and temporary barriers at train platforms to prevent similar incidents from occurring. A few days ago, a person fell onto the tracks at Abdullah Hukum LRT Station during the evening rush hour. The resulting service disruption lasted nearly an hour at Abdullah Hukum, Kerinchi and Universiti LRT stations. To this news, Anthony Loke simply “issued an urgent reminder to ‘be vigilant and adhere to safety regulation’”.
Aging trains and obvious reminders should not be excuses to overlook the basic safety of commuters. To this day, Prasarana have not yet implemented PSDs or barriers at the LRT train platforms; at most they host warning signs, a yellow border and sometimes an auxiliary cop during rush hours. A little nudge – not uncommon on crowded platforms during peak hours – is all it takes to repeat the above accidents. By comparison, MRT station platforms do come with PSDs, and there have been no reports of people falling onto the tracks at MRT stations.
With that being said, in addition to our demands under the #KempenMy30 campaign, we also demand action from the following parties as follows:
- RapidKL
- Announce a concrete timeline for the installation of temporary barriers and Platform Screen Doors (PSDs) across all LRT stations and what temporary safety measures are currently in place to protect commuters until full implementation is completed. The public deserves to know!
- Provide a clear action plan detailing exactly what steps are being taken to resolve ongoing disruptions, including timelines and measurable outcomes.
- Ensure the leadership is accountable and dependable. If these issues persist and cannot be resolved within a reasonable timeframe, the CEO must take responsibility and step down.
- Ministry of Finance
- Allocate more of the national budget to public transportation, especially for the Klang Valley. This is so that RapidKL can afford the necessary upgrades and maintenance to provide better safety to commuters.
Many people who live and work in the Klang Valley rely on public transport infrastructure to commute between work and home. However, if public transport continues to be neglected, more people will be forced onto already congested roads and exacerbating traffic conditions across Kuala Lumpur. We call on Prasarana, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Finance to take immediate actions right now. There’s no time to wait. Restore public confidence and ensure that no more lives are put at risk due to preventable failures.
Sources:
3.https://thesun.my/news/malaysia-news/passenger-falls-abdullah-hukum-lrt/
Released by:
Azraei Iskandar Putra
KempenMy30 committee member