Five days on the rails, commuters endure delays, breakdowns and daily chaos
What we found went beyond delayed trains or routine congestion, it was a closer look at the emotional strain, exhaustion and uncertainty faced by thousands of city commuters every single day.
KUALA LUMPUR – Sinar spent five consecutive days on the ground to understand the daily frustrations of public transport users, travelling across the Light Rail Transit (LRT), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and monorail routes during both morning and evening peak hours.
What we found went beyond delayed trains or routine congestion, it was a closer look at the emotional strain, exhaustion and uncertainty faced by thousands of city commuters every single day.
Technical disruptions, train delays and severe overcrowding during peak periods continued to be a daily nightmare for those who relied on the system to get to and from work.
Tensions peaked on the third day of the observation when an MRT train travelling from Pasar Seni to Kwasa Sentral suddenly came to a halt for more than 10 minutes at the Phileo Damansara Station.
The train doors could not be opened at all.
Inside the increasingly packed carriage, commuters were left relying on a repeated announcement:
“We will be stopping longer than usual. Please be cautious and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
Minutes later, a staff made a further announcement, informing passengers that the doors could not be opened and that they would need to disembark at the next station instead.
At major LRT stations such as Masjid Jamek and KLCC, the situation was almost similar.
Between 7am and 9am, and again from 5pm to 7pm, platforms became extremely crowded. Although trains arrived every three minutes, capacity was clearly insufficient to accommodate the high volume of passengers.
The monorail service moved at a noticeably slower pace, with passengers often waiting 10 to 15 minutes at each station. This resulted in longer total travel times, despite the network being smaller compared to the LRT and MRT systems.
Download Sinar Daily application.Click Here!
