Kelana Jaya Line LRT Power Outage: TNB-RapidKL Blame Game

September 19th 2014 – A brief power outage has occured on 1:50 PM in some stations along Kelana Jaya line, causing commuters to be stranded at the stations as the crowd begin to swell as peak travel time draws near. According to statements made by RapidKL, the route between Masjid Jamek and Gombak station was affected by the outage. Fortunately, on 4:01 PM, power has been restored, just in time before workers find their way back home.

Although Kelana Jaya Line now has been equipped with new four-coach trains, congestion during peak periods is still a norm. It is not as bad as KL Monorail though.

During power outage, shuttle buses are being provided by RapidKL. However, the signage is not clear enough, with most of the instructions only comes from twitter.

Inter-service communication was smooth as we can see some notice put up via electronic display at Imbi KL Monorail station. However, when the service backs to normal, the signage was not updated promptly. This may cause confusion to commuters.

Translation: Kelana Jaya LRT service is fully functioning again. Any inconvenience caused are deeply regretted.

The Blame Game – RapidKL says:

On 1:50 PM, RapidKL announced the delay of Kelana Jaya Line, without mentioning specific reason of service delay.

Translation: KJ Line Update: We are having technical problems. Delays in schedule are expected.

Six minutes later they announced it was due to power fault between Masjid Jamek and Gombak.

Translation: KJ Line Update: 1350 hrs We are having power supply problems. Restoration work is being carried out.

About an hour later, they said it is because of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB):

Translation: KJ Line Update: 1450hrs Kelana Jaya LRT service is still disrupted due to power supply interruption by TNB.

They even made a direct mention to TNB official twitter account, probably inducing commuters to address their complaints to TNB directly.

The Blame Game – TNB says:

Lets see what TNB has to say, via its corporate communications general manager, Omar Sidek:

“TNB would like to clarify that the stalled LRT services earlier Friday was due to switchgear fault at Rapid KL’s end.”

“We deny news reports that burnt TNB cables caused disruption to the LRT services”

Conclusion

While we cannot find conclusive evidence yet on the occurence, we believe some sort of miscommunication took place. We hope that emergency response team of both agencies will be more prepared for problems like this.