KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — Rapid Bus will add 40 free shuttle buses to carry affected passengers following the closure of 16 Light Rail Transit (LRT) train stations between Kelana Jaya and Ampang Park starting yesterday.

Caretaker transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, in a post on his Facebook page today, announced the additional buses was through the collaboration of Smart Selangor and Mara Liner, with each providing 20 buses under their management.

"Currently, Rapid Bus provides a total of 83 buses to accommodate the high number of passengers. More than 120 buses are mobilised is to accommodate passengers on five routes as posted on Rapid KL’s social media,” he said.

Wee also said he would visit the operation control centre (OCC) of the Kelana Jaya Line LRT after technical experts from the Thales Group in Canada and Singapore arrived in Malaysia today to conduct an inspection at Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) OCC.

"I will get more details about the problem after the Thales experts have done their inspection. I will inform you about the development on this matter from time to time.

"We would like to thank members of the public for their patience and will do our best to solve this problem as soon as possible,” he said.

Previously, LRT operator Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd announced the unstable automatic train control (ATC) system was identified as the cause of interruption in the Kelana Jaya Line LRT train service last Saturday and Monday.

Prasarana said LRT services between Kelana Jaya and Ampang Park stations will be suspended for seven days starting at 6am yesterday, after taking into account passenger safety and the time it will take to identify the cause of the service disruption.

Meanwhile in a separate statement, Wee said two experts from the Thales Group are currently on a flight from Toronto, Canada and will begin inspections immediately upon arrival.

Thales supplies transportation-based automation solutions for railways around the world including automatic train control (ATC) systems.

"Earlier, Prasarana and Thales have been in close contact since Monday (Nov 7). The Ministry of Transport (MOT) will monitor the development closely and ensure the capability of trains to operate safely without compromise.

"Of course, we want the system to operate earlier than the seven-day suspension as announced. But what is most important is passenger safety which is always a priority,” he said.

Wee said he will hold a press conference tomorrow morning after returning to OCC to get the latest development.

Earlier, Wee chaired a meeting with senior ministry officials including MOT secretary-general Datuk Isham Ishak; Land Division deputy secretary Wan Mohd Asraf Wan Salleh and Prasarana management led by group president and chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah and Rapid Rail chief executive officer Amir Hamdan in his ministry.

Wee then went to the Kelana Jaya Route OCC to receive an initial briefing from Thales Group experts Hugos Ramos and Vincent Burdin who arrived from Singapore yesterday.

"These two experts have together with OCC staff tested the affected system continuously and carried out train movement simulations at two and a half minute intervals and analysed data logs for the past few days,” he said. — Bernama