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Kuala Lumpur Transit System: KL Monorail.

In early April 2010 while visiting friends in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I had a few days spare to photograph the various types of mass transport around Kuala Lumpur. This was my 1st visit to Kuala Lumpur in 6 years and my some things had changed in the city some better some worse.

A background on the KL Monorail.

The KL monorail opened in August 2003 running between KL Sentral and Titiwangsa via Bukit Bintang. The monorail allowed for the first time a real traffic free route to Bukit Bintang an upmarket shopping and entertainment district in the centre of Kuala Lumpur. There are 11 stations over a distance of 8.6km along the KL monorail route and the end to end journey time is about 25 minutes.

The KL monorail consists of a double beam elevated track running mostly along main roads of the inner city of KL this track allows for bi directional running along the entire monorail route in the same way a standard metro line would. The elevated track is much lighter in construction that other elevated railways. Also the elevated track is lower to the ground than typical elevated metros.

The monorail trains are based on combination of German and Japanese technology but in a South East Asian first they were entirely locally built in Malaysia. The Monorail train sets are known as ALWEG straddle-beam monorails. In total there are 12 two car monorail sets in use on the KL monorail system. The layout of the seating in these monorail trains is quite unusual in that the seating is in the middle of car rather than under the windows. This has lead to a lower capacity in practice and longer station dwell times.

The stations are all elevated with two separate platforms for each direction. At the terminus there is a single track and platform with a double face. This is to allow boarding on one side and disembarking on the other to speed up passenger loading times at the terminus. There are only a few escalators on the entire system access is via a lot of stairs which can be rather tiring in a hot climate like KL. Also there is no provision for disabled access or lifts anywhere on the KL monorail system which for such a new system is very unusual. To install such disabled access later will be very difficult due to the design of the stations and limited space to construct lifts at each station. The stations appear to be able to accommodate at least 4 car long monorail trains in the future as demand grows.

The capacity of the KL monorail is somewhat limited the current set up using 2 car sets is insufficient at peak times and only just enough during off peak periods. Overcrowding and long station dwell times are big problems now days on the system that will only get worse without extra monorail sets or longer monorail sets. This problem becomes very clear in the Bukit Bintang area where demand is high throughout the day. The current annual ridership of the KL monorail is 21,765,233 people. In other words about 60,000 people per day.

The fare cost on the KL monorail is the highest per trip with a starting price of RM 1.20 which is 20% more than any other rail system in Kuala Lumpur. The ticket prices range from RM 1.20 to RM 2.50 per single trip. The KL monorail tickets can only be used on the monorail and offer no integration with other rail systems or buses. Passengers have a choice of purchasing a single trip ticket or a RM20 or RM50 stored value card for use only on the KL monorail. However there are Rapid KL monthly passes that allow multi modal trips on a single ticket. Also the Touch n Go smartcards can be used on the KL monorail but there are no outlets to purchase or top up these cards on the KL monorail system.

The KL monorail is very poorly integrated with other mass transit railways in Kuala Lumpur often resulting in users needing to exit one system go down to street level and walking a little before accessing the monorail stations. The worst example of poor integration on the monorail system is at KL Sentral a major interchange point on the rail system. Users need to walk up to 500 meters around a construction site and then cross a busy road at grade just to access the monorail from KL Sentral station. This is something that must be improved quickly as it adds up to 10 minutes to users travel times and is very uncomfortable to do when carrying bags of shopping or suitcases.

The actual ride comfort on the KL monorail is quite rough and gives a similar experience to that of a bus running on a normal street. This also means the track it runs on is full of bumps and dips making a smooth rail like ride very difficult indeed. In addition due to tight radius curves the G force effect on passengers standing is much greater than on other rail based mode thus tends to leave the user with the feeling the KL monorail is an inferior system to the rail based metros.

Another far more serious problem is plaguing the KL monorail system is that of poor maintenance of rolling stock and associated systems. Recently a number of problems with the KL monorail have shown up such as:

Poorly maintained aircon systems on trains leading to stuffy and uncomfortable trips for passengers often made worse by the overcrowding.

Carriage doors that often jam open or closed forcing passengers to find another door increasing passenger loading times and in some cases trapping people in the train for a number of minutes until they can be forced open by staff.

Unusually long waits for a clear signal on many sections of the system even when it is evident the next station is empty this just adds to overall journey times for passengers and makes the passengers wonder if the train has failed.

For a 7 year old modern mass transit system this maintenance issue is a very serious problem that must be address both on safety and passenger comfort grounds. This give me the impression the locally made rolling stock was built very cheaply and with lower quality materials. This means the problems with the system are only likely to get worse as time goes by.

However there might be some explanation as to why the system has gone down hill so fast. The owners of the privately funded KL monorail have had a lot of problems with servicing the loans used to build the system. Which seems rather odd considering the very high rider ship of the monorail trains. In 2007 the owner of the system declared bankruptcy and the state run SPNB which operates among other things Rapid KL, PUTRA and STAR LRT lines agreed to purchase the system and operate it.

There are plans to extend the KL monorail system in the future to Mid valley shopping centre a few km west of KL Sentral but the government has not allowed this to go ahead nor will fund it in the near future. Therefore at the moment the KL monorail will remain as a single isolated line in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.

Now onto the photographs and videos taken around the KL monorail system.

1. This is a shot of Medan Tuanku Monorail station. Taken from the northbound platform looking across the monorail tracks. Each station has a sponsor in this case “Ricoh”and each station has a similar design.



4. This is a shot of KL monorail train number 0203 taken after it had departed from Medan Tuanku station on a trip to Titiwangsa. All monorail trains are two car and air conditioned.



9. This is another inside shot of the passengers area of a typical KL monorail set. This time with less passengers. The seating layout can be seen better with the unusual seats in the middle of the carriage rather than only along the walls as is common on most metro trains.



14. This is an image of two KL monorail trains passing each other just north of Chow Kit station. Taken from the end of the platform at Chow Kit station. Note all the KL monorail trains are the same make ALWEG but produced locally.



17. This is a shot of KL monorail train number 0918 as it was approaching Chow Kit station. Taken from end of platform looking south. Note the high density nature of this area.



19. This is a shot of the monorail track points just outside Titiwangsa station. Taken from the end of the platform through a glass window. Note how the entire track has to move to allow the train to change tracks.



20. This is a shot of KL monorail number 0918 as it was passing over the monorail points at Titiwangsa station. Taken from the end of the platform through a glass window. The empty buildings on the left used to be government apartments which for unknown reasons have been gutted.



25. This is a shot of KL monorail unit number 0306 as it rounds the curve from Jalan Sultan Ismail into Jalan TAR. Taken from the 6th floor of the Tune Hotel. This shows how tight the curves are on sections of the monorail track and the limited space to build supporting structures for the tracks.



33. This is a shot of KL monorail unit number 0306 as it was departing from Tun Sambanthan station on a trip to Titiwangsa. Taken from end of the platform at Tun Sambanthan station.



35. This is a shot of a KL monorail train with advertising for Macau passing by the Christian school on its way to monorail yard near KL Sentral. Note the huge Hong Kong style condo tower in the background.



If you would like to see more images and movies of the KL Monorail please visit:

http://thaitransit-international.blogspot.com/2010/05/kuala-lumpur-transit-system-kl-monorail.html

I hope you have enjoyed this topic and all the interesting pictures and information. If you have time please leave some friendly comments about what you have seen below.