LRT3 Shah Alam Line opening delayed to year-end?
The LRT3 Shah Alam Line‘s opening could be delayed to end-2025, if a report by The Star is to be believed. The English-language daily sighted a memo in which Prasarana Malaysia president and CEO Amir Hamdan expressed hope that there would be no more delays so that the project can open for service in December.
“God willing, the project will enter into a critical phase called the fault-free run (FFR) on August 25. We pray that this test will go smoothly as planned with no more delays so that we can complete the project in time for launch,” Amir said.
Transport minister Anthony Loke said on July 30 in a written parliamentary reply that LRT3 was 99.21% complete as of July 10. However, Prasarana said on social media on July 25 that the trains would be “tested round-the-clock” until October 31 – a month after the targeted September 30 opening date. This post was amended to remove the date after The Star ran an August 4 story about the delay.
The 37-km line will feature 25 stations from Bandar Utama to Johan Setia, with interchanges at the Bandar Utama (Kajang MRT) and Glenmarie (Kelana Jaya LRT) stations. It has been subjected to various changes since the 2018 government change, particularly to do with down-scaling and cost-cutting.
The MRCB-George Kent JV was appointed project delivery partner (PDP) in 2015. Following the jettisoning of the PDP model for a fixed-price turnkey contract in November 2018, the contractor was rebranded Setia Utama LRT3.
The Star understands that the FFR delays this year were caused by several issues, most notably to do with the integration of signalling, communications and electrification. Later this week, the first of the 22 trains must complete 4,000 km of testing without faults; the rest must do at least 2,000 km each. Each train must also be able to travel the entire length of the line in an hour or less at a maximum of six minutes’ headway, which is needed if the system wants to move 18,630 passengers per hour per direction.
