A STORY OF KUALA LUMPUR (ep11)

CHAPTER 1: TRIVIA dE KUALA LUMPUR

(PART 009)

~"RAPIDKL"~



Rail Transit or RapidKL LRT is a light rail transit operated by RapidKL, a major public transport operator in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. According to the Ministry of Transport Malaysia 2008 Statistics, the annual ridership for both RapidKL Kelana Jaya Line and RapidKL Ampang Line were 109,177,817 millions of passenger.



The rolling stock of the Kelana Jaya Line, in use since the opening of the line in 1998, consists of a fleet of 35 Mark II Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) trains with related equipment and services supplied by the Bombardier Group. The ART trains consist of two-electric multiple units, which serve as either a driving car or trailer car depending on its direction of travel.
The trains utilise linear motors and draw power from a third rail located at the side of the steel rails. The plating in between the running rails is used for accelerating and decelerating the train.
The reaction plate is semi-magnetised, which pulls the train along as well as helps it to slow down. The ART is essentially driverless, automated to travel along lines and stop at designated stations for a limited amount of time. Nevertheless, manual override control panels are provided at each end of the trains for use in an event of an emergency. The rolling stock of the Ampang Lines consists of a fleet of 90 Adtranz standard gauge trains manufactured by Walkers Limited, an engineering and company.



The trains consist of electric multiple units, which draw power from the underside of a third rail installed along a side of the line. All cars in each train are fitted with both current collector and motors. The trains are manned, with driver cabs occupying the tips of the trains.
The trains come in two trainset configurations. The first and most common variation is the six-car trainset, which consists of three sets of two EMUs (2+2+2) and utilises the maximum platform length of the lines' stations. Each two EMU sets at the front and rear consist of one driving and one non-driving motor car, while the two EMUs between are non-driving motors.
There are no gangway connections between the two-car sets. The second variation is a four-car trainset, a more obscure configuration that consists of only two EMU sets (2+2) of one driving car and one non-driving motor at each end, thus with two-thirds the capacity of the more common six-car set. The 2+2 trainsets were once used in full in the service until the massive deployment of 2+2+2 trainsets. Each car has 3 bogies, 2 powered end bogies and one trailing bogie under the central articulation. The end cars, numbered 1101 to 1260 have driver cabs. The middle car number 2201 to 2230 have concealed driver control panels to enable the car to be moved around the depot independently.



Since the Kelana Jaya line and Ampang Line was intended to be operated by different owners during the planning and construction phase, both lines have unique and distinct station designs. Only the Kelana Jaya line has underground station while Ampang line has on ground station.
All Kelana Jaya line station are elevated. Kelana Jaya Line's stations are given in a north-south direction, consists primarily of elevated stops and a handful of underground and at-grade stations. Of a total of 24 stations, 16 are elevated, and 5 stops between Pasar Seni and Ampang Park are underground. The only at-grade station, Sri Rampai, is currently incomplete and closed since a construction project it is supposed to serve has been halted. The Sri Rampai station is the only station in the line to be out of service. The stations, like those of the Ampang Line, are styled in several types of architectural designs. Elevated stations, in most parts, were constructed in four major styles with distinctive roof designs for specific portions of the line.
The KL Sentral station, added later, features a design more consistent with the Stesen Sentral station building. Underground stations, however, tend to feature unique concourse layout and vestibules, and feature floor-to-ceiling platform screen doors to prevent platform-to-track intrusions. 13 stations (including two terminal stations and the five subway stations) utillise a single island platform, while 11 others utilize two side platforms. Stations with island platforms allow easy interchange between north-bound and south-bound trains without requiring one to walk down/up to the concourse level. On the Ampang Line, the system includes a total of 25 stations: eleven along the Chan Sow Lin-Sentul Timur line, and seven along the Ampang-Chan Sow Lin line and the Sri Petaling-Chan Sow Lin line each. The service depot and primary train depot for the system is situated before the Ampang terminal station and the end of the Ampang-bound line. A secondary train depot is located after the Sri Petaling station. The line between the Plaza Rakyat station to the Sentul Timur station is strictly elevated,
with the line between the Bandaraya station to the Titiwangsa station running along the Gombak River. The Chan Sow Lin-Ampang line is primarily surface leveled, while the Chan Sow Lin-Plaza Rakyat line and the Sri Petaling-Chan Sow Lin line use a combination of surface leveled and elevated tracks. There are no subway lines in the system.