Starting off our 3rd full day at Kuala Lumpur we had our earliest morning yet with an 8:15am start time to get ready for a long day of two site visits. Our first stop was 40 minutes out of the city at the Malaysia Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) train depot in Sungai Buloh. This is a central hub, housing their Operations Control Center as well as it being the the main site for maintenance along with storage for the Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) Line. We listened to presentations from experts in charge of constructing and operating the train system followed by a look into the operations control center. After that we went to the train yard to look at some of the trains they had in for maintenance and ended the site tour with a hearty lunch.
Our first presentation went into the MRT Corp themselves who are developers and owners of Malaysia’s MRT network in Klang Valley or the greater Kuala Lumpur region. They were founded in 2011 and currently own the Kajang and Putrajaya lines in this system. They explained how for the Kuala Lumpur region specifically they needed to rely on really extensive geotechnical monitoring done before drilling for the lines due to the erratic limestone making up the surrounding areas. Another issue they had is the fact that they only charge a fare of 50MYR (~$12 USD) a month for the MRT system so they have had to come up with alternative strategies to obtain enough revenue to run the lines such as selling the naming rights to the stations or adverts and retail space on the stops themselves.They are currently in development on a new line connecting Malaysia and Singapore as well as a third line in Kuala Lumpur that will go around the city instead of radially outward.
Moving onto the lines themselves, together they cover 107km with 65 stations with a run time from 6am to midnight. That being said, the control center runs for 24 hours in two 12 hour shifts and currently monitors the two lines but it was designed to accommodate the monitoring of up to 3 lines in the future. 24 hour monitoring is required. They send out a sweeper train every night in order to ensure that the rails are free of debris from the heavy rains. In the case of emergency repairs or maintenance of the rail, they rely on a large group of manpower and machinery to get the job done in the 6 hour gap when the lines aren’t in service. The control center here currently monitors the two lines but it was designed to accommodate the monitoring of up to 3 lines in the future.
Going outside into the depot we got to walk right to the workshop where they house about 60 trains. They have about 14 depots where they house the trains for repairs and maintenance and they also run for 24 hours. They typically hold about 10% of the trains at a time either for monthly routine maintenance or other necessary repairs. The most common type of repair is re-profiling wheels due to defects and this repair occurs about every year and a half on average per train. Re-profiling the wheels can result in the diameter of the wheels shrinking from 850 cm to 750 cm in their lifetime which is why the wheels have to be completely replaced after about 5 years.
After a quick photo we made our way back inside for lunch, which was fully prepared for us. We tried the national dish known as Nasi Lemak, which includes rice cooked in coconut milk and served with a spicy sambal chili paste along with peanuts and anchovies. For dessert we also had Sago Gula Melaka which is a dessert similar to tiny tapioca bubbles but made of palm starch served with coconut milk and palm sugar. Once we’d finished our lunch we made our way back to the buses ready to continue on to our next site visit of the day. All in all, a really informative site visit with a great meal to wrap up our morning.
Blog by Luis Castro