Technical Visit to Rapid KL Depot, Subang (16 June 2010)

(Organized by Project Management Technical Division, IEM)

Prepared By Ir. Noor Iziddin Abdullah Bin Hj Ghazali.

Date : 16^th June 2010 (Wednesday)

Time : 8.00 am – 1.30 pm

Venue : Rapid KL, Subang

The Company

Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RapidKL), a subsidiary of Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (“Prasarana”) provides an integrated public transport system in the Klang Valley incorporating rail and bus services. Incorporated in July 2004 and operational since November the same year, RapidKL today transports approximately 600,000 passengers daily: 350,000 on both the Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT Lines and 280,000 on the bus system. RapidKL provides services across 48 rail stations and 167 bus routes.

The Visit.

The objective of this visit was to provide an opportunity for engineers to have a better insight into the current LRT operations as well as the new LRT project including the proposed new LRT extension line. Participants would also have the chance to visit the large LRT depot. The visit was coordinated by the Project Management Technical Division (PMTD) of IEM with the CSR & Internal Communication, Communication Division from Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd. We would like to thank Ir. Nor Hassan Ismail, COO, Rail of Rapid KL for granting this visit.

The IEM delegation arrived at Rapid KL Depot before 9.00am and was warmly welcomed by the CSR & Internal Communication of Rapid KL who represented its management. We were ushered into the meeting room for presentation. The first presentation was on the Operation & Engineering of both the Rapid KL LRT lines, namely the Kelana Jaya Line and Ampang Line.

Kelana Jaya Line

The presentation began with Hj Bukhari Muhamed (the Head of Rail Operation Division of Rapid KL) who briefed us on the Kelana Jaya Line, formally known as PUTRA Line. The line stretches from Gombak to Kelana Jaya including Subang Depot. There are five (5) underground stations, eleven (18) elevated stations and one (1) at-grade station. Total distance is about 29 km. Kelana Jaya Line is equipped with sufficient facilities for the disabled.

Hj Bukhari Muhamed also briefed us on the system. The cross section of elevated guide-way consists of the viaduct section on the median road sitting on precast concrete segmental road. The construction of Kelana Jaya Line commenced on 1994. Section 1 was completed on 1^st September 1998 and Section 2 on 1^st June 1999. The system consists of centralized control centre, fully automated driverless trains, minimum 90-second headway, moving block ATC system and a safety distance of 30m to 100m.

The vehicle is made by Bombardier (Canada) to accommodate 400 passengers per 2-car train and 800 passengers per 4-car train with the average speed of 40 kph. It uses single loop operation between Terminal Putra and Kelana Jaya on double track with the maximum capacity of 9,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd). There are thirty five (35) 2-car trains and ten (10) 4-car trains with an average ridership of 165,000 per day. The operating hours are from 6.00am until midnight whilst maintenance is carried out from 1.00am until 4.30am. During peak hours, the LRT serves the passenger within intervals of less than 3 minutes. The Kelana Jaya Line has a minimum fare of RM 0.70 and the maximum fare of RM 2.50.

The uniqueness of the Kelana Jaya Line lies in its five (5) underground stations with the distance of 4.36km twin independent bore. There are two (2) tunnels with an internal diameter of 4.88m. The distance between two tunnels is 5m. There are a lot of safety features in this system such as CCTV, Stop Button, Evacuation shaft, Zones, Fire Protection system, covered power rail, etc just to name a few.

During the presentation, a lot of participants enquired about the progress of the technology for the current system and also on the extended line to Putra Heights. We were told that the work of the extended line will commence by final quarter of 2010 and is targeted to be completed by 2013.

Ampang Line

Hj Bukhari Muhamed then proceeded to brief us on Ampang Line which was previously known as the STAR-LRT line. The civil work consists of a 27km double-track route. The track is partially former KTM freight alignment. It has 16km at grade on ballast and 11km elevated on viaduct. There are a total of 25 stations as follows:-

· Seven (7) stations on Ampang Line

· Seven (7) stations on Seri Petaling Line ; and the remaining

· Eleven (11) on the common section between Chan Sow Lin and Sentul Timur.

There is a Control Centre for the whole Ampang Line situated at Ampang Station cum

Depot. All train operations are under SCADA systems. There is also a Fixed Block Automatic Signaling System for vehicle movement. The power supply system consists of 15 rectifier substations; six of which with 11kV and 9 with 33kV infeeds. Transformers are 3-phase dry type with 1800 KVA and 1300 KVA power ratings. The operation & maintenance hours are the same as the Kelana Jaya Line.

The fare for Ampang Line has a minimum of RM 0.70 and a maximum of RM 2.80, which is RM 0.30 more than the Kelana Jaya Line. There are twenty five (25) trains rolling on the track, each consisting of 6 cars. However the average ridership is only 130,000 per day.

Overview & Engineering

The presentation of Hj Bukhari Muhamed was followed by another presentation by Ir. Zohari Sulaiman, General Manager of Rail Engineering Division.

Ir Zohari first briefed us on the corporate structure of PRASARANA. It is 100% owned by MOF with one golden share owned by KHAZANAH NASIONAL BERHAD. It operates an integrated public transport system comprising Bus, Monorail and LRT services.

The Bus service covers 6 major areas in Klang Valley serving an average of 280,000 passengers daily. The fleet consists of 1091 buses maintained by 10 bus depots. There is also a RAPID Penang bus service with 350 buses plying 35 routes and serving 46,000 passengers daily. The Monorail service is named as KL StarRail. It has twelve (12) 2-car trains running on a 8.6km track with 11 stations in total. The average daily ridership is 57,000 in 2009. There is also a cable car service operating in Langkawi given by PANORAMA Langkawi. It has 35 gondolas (6 pax per gondola) with a hanging bridge of 600 meter, covering a distance of 2.2km within 3 stations. The RAPID KL LRT services consist of Kelana Jaya Line with fully automated driverless LRT system and Ampang Line with manually driven LRT system. The combined average ridership is 350,000 passengers per day.

Ir. Zohari Sulaiman continued the presentation on the organization structure of his division, outlining the tasks & responsibilities of each department. This is followed by a briefing on the technical aspects. The rolling stock of Kelana Jaya Line consists of thirty five (35) old 2-car trains and thirty five (35) new 4-car trains. The AC power distribution consists of 132kV intake from TNB (Jelatek & Kerinchi Bulk supply Substation), 33kV ring system internally (15 traction power substation) and finally the 415V RMU system for passenger stations. The DC power is a step-down conversion from 33KV AC to 750V DC. The track mounted equipment consists of insulator chair, LIM rails, running rails, PIES, Power Rail and switch machines. The Ampang Line vehicle is manufactured by Adtranz. It consists of thirty (30) 6-car trains. However the AC power distribution consists of 4 units of RSS with 33kV intake from TNB, 5 units of RSS with 33kV ring system internally, 6 units of RSS direct feed from TNB and the 415V RMU system for passenger stations. The DC power is also a step-down conversion from 33KV AC to 750V DC. For the track network, the at-grade track consists of ballast, third rail, rails and sleepers whereas the viaduct track has plinth.

Finally we arrived at the last topic of presentation which is the line extension project & new line project. Ir. Zohari Sulaiman explained the overall route of new line starting from Sri Petaling and Kelana Jaya, both converging at Putra Heights. There is also a proposed new line from Sg Buloh to Kajang across the Central Business District (CBD) of Kuala Lumpur which is envisaged to be completed by 2020.

The presentation was followed by a tour to the train maintenance workshop. The tour around the workshop started at 11am and finished at 12.30pm including a visit to the Control Centre. Before we headed back to IEM at 1.30pm after lunch, the Vice Chairman of PMTD, Ir. Lee Boon Chong presented a memento each to both Ir. Zohari Sulaiman and Hj Bukhari Muhamed.

Conclusion

This visit has provided an opportunity for engineers to obtain first-hand information on the current LRT operations, the new four–car trains for Kelana Jaya Line and the new LRT extension line, besides a practical tour around the large LRT depot.

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