Transport Minister Anthony Loke has expressed frustration over the repeated rail service disruptions in recent weeks, saying he is personally angered by the frequency of the breakdowns.
According to NST, Loke said he has instructed Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to prioritise resolving maintenance and technical issues affecting public rail services, including the LRT, MRT, and KL Monorail.
He said the recurring disruptions pose a major challenge to the government’s efforts to encourage more people to use public transport, as they have already affected commuter confidence.
No one wants these continuous disruptions. It is certainly a challenge, and I am also angry because similar incidents are happening almost every week,” he said.
Public confidence affected by repeated faults
Loke acknowledged that public frustration is understandable, especially as the government has been actively promoting train usage among Malaysians.
He said many commuters have questioned why they are being encouraged to take public transport when service disruptions continue to happen so often.
“When we are actively encouraging the public to use public transport, I am fully aware of the public sentiment. People will say, ‘The minister asks us to take the train, yet there are disruptions every day,’” he said.
He stressed that the government does not want such incidents to continue and is doing its best to minimise them.
Faults linked to technical issues
According to Loke, most of the recent disruptions were caused by unforeseen technical problems, including faults involving signalling systems and track switches, both of which can affect station operations and train movements.
He said although such technical failures may sometimes be unavoidable, operators must ensure the rail network remains reliable for the public.
The minister added that the Transport Ministry has directed Prasarana to improve its maintenance standards and monitoring systems so rail services can be more dependable and regain public trust.
Loke’s remarks came after yesterday’s (Apr 13) disruption on the Kelana Jaya LRT line, which was caused by a track switch fault at the Universiti Station.
Full services were restored at 7.21am after engineering teams carried out initial repair works.
Earlier in February, the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) had also been instructed to investigate recurring disruptions on the Kelana Jaya line during the early phase of Ramadan.
Death Penalty Not Necessary For Drink-Driving Cases, Says Anthony Loke
