The aerotrain service at KLIA Terminal 1 will be suspended on a daily basis from 9pm to 7am for a month starting tomorrow for inspection and rectification works.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) managing director Izani Ghani said the nightly shutdowns were part of a comprehensive technical plan to resolve the issues recorded since the aerotrain resumed service.
“Full bus services will be deployed during the shutdown to ferry passengers between the main terminal and the satellite building.
“We anticipate this work will take about four weeks or a month or so, up to Dec 15,” he told a press conference at Sama-Sama Hotel here today.
Last week, it was reported that the aerotrain service would be halted from midnight to 5am daily to allow for inspection and rectification works.
Izani today said the focus remained on ensuring that the aerotrain provides the reliability and safety expected of an international gateway like KLIA.
“This plan allows us to systematically address the root causes of past disruptions while reaffirming our commitment to passenger safety and service excellence,” he added.
Deputy transport minister Hasbi Habibollah previously said that 19 minor incidents involving the aerotrain were recorded between July 2 and Sept 30, involving the signalling system as well as cases where passengers attempted to manually force open the train doors, among others.
Hasbi said the provider of the aerotrain system could face a fine of up to RM190,000 for every month it fails to ensure that the trains operate at the optimum level.
Izani said the daily inspection works would cover power supply, signalling, communications, vehicles, guideway, safety equipment and switches.
He said the programme would proceed in three stages: root-cause prevention, hardware and software upgrades, and full train system inspection. Real-time stress tests and trial operations will be conducted before full service resumes.
Izani said the aerotrain had recorded 98.41% operational service availability since July 1, completing more than 53,000 return trips and ferrying over seven million passengers as of Nov 10.
Yet to hear from MACC
Responding to questions about the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s probe into the aerotrain disruptions, Izani said MAHB had “not received any request (from the anti-graft agency) yet”.
He added that MAHB was ready to cooperate with the agency.
Yesterday, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said MACC was free to investigate the RM456 million aerotrain project based on existing laws and evidence.
MACC said last month that it was ready to investigate any allegations of corruption or misappropriation involving the aerotrain project if a report was lodged.
However, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said no investigation papers had been opened on the project, and that no complaints or information had been received.
Loke said on Oct 28 that the Land Public Transport Agency had been ordered to open an investigation paper into MAHB over the aerotrain service disruptions.
