KUALA LUMPUR (March 31): Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd (Rapid Rail) is addressing issues related to its rail operations that have resulted in a slew of service disruptions lately. 

Initial investigations into previous incidents revealed that the problems were related to failure of some specific subcomponents. 

The operator of LRT, Monorail and MRT services in Klang Valley in a statement on Friday (March 31) said its investigation into the Putrajaya Line MRT service delay on March 23 and 29 found that disruption of track switches had caused a train to move slowly and stop longer at stations. 

The management said immediate repair work has been carried out by technical staff on locations and services have been fully restored. 

Further disruptions involving the MRT Kajang Line on March 27 and 28 were found to be the result of faulty brake system and power losses, due to component failure in the train control system.

“Preliminary investigation found that there was an air leak on one of the brake cylinders that caused the brakes to fail. This is the first time such an incident has happened to the MRT Line Kajang,” Rapid Rail said. 

The damaged train has been removed from service and taken back to the depot for technical evaluation. 

Service disruption on the Kelana Jaya Line LRT on March 27 was caused by damage to one of the components in the 'Passenger Intrusion Emergency Stop' (PIES) system that resulted in the train stopping due to safety reasons. 

“A detailed investigation is now underway to identify the cause actual damage to the system,” the operator said. 

On March 22, another service disruption occurred on the Kelana Jaya Line LRT due to issues found in the 'Remote Loop Box' which failed to function due to component damage after being struck by lightning.

“Rapid Rail has taken immediate steps to overcome the issue with increasing the availability of critical spare parts in nearby crew rooms to reduce operational downtime,” the operator said, expressing its apologies for the inconvenience caused.