Prasarana Group’s chief executive officer Norlia Noah said it has found that both the OCC and the driver, or hostler, of train number 40 (TR40) initially followed the SOPs, but eventually ignored them due to high pressure.
In a response to the transport ministry’s investigation committee report, she said Prasarana has already implemented several immediate measures since May 30 to improve SOPs for the Kelana Jaya line.
The report listed 23 suggestions to improve the existing SOPs, including increasing the accountability of rail management.
Additionally, minister Wee Ka Siong in a press conference yesterday urged Prasarana Malaysia Bhd and Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd to take immediate action to comply with all of the committee’s recommendations.
In her statement today, Norlia said Prasarana was currently reviewing its structures, processes, safety compliance, access to tracks, communications protocols and others to enable the implementation of the committee’s short-term recommendations.
“SOPs have also been tightened immediately after the crash to manage any communication disruptions between the OCC and trains that are driven manually.”
Some of the other steps taken include posting two hostlers for all manual trains for underground routes between the Pasar Seni and Damai LRT stations.
Prasarana has also made it mandatory for the OCC and hostler to ensure the correct orientation for trains that are to be driven manually.
They have also added protection zones or “Manual Route Reservation (Automatic Train Protection) Buffer Zone” for trains with malfunctions, so that other trains stop farther away.
The speed limit for manually-driven trains has also been capped at 20kph.
Prasarana also increased mini emergency response plan exercises (‘Mini ERP Exercise’), to be held every Sunday evening.
The group will also increase competency training for hostlers to improve competency and efficiency among them.
The LRT collision between the TR40 train without passengers and another train (TR81) carrying 213 people saw 47 passengers suffering serious injuries. The rest suffered minor injuries.
Wee said preliminary investigations found that the hostler of TR40 had failed to follow the correct orientation.
The report meanwhile concluded that critical SOPs were ignored when TR40 suffered a “time-out” after it malfunctioned between the Kampung Baru and KLCC stations.