Monorail to have seven four-coach trains by end of next year — Rapid Rail

KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): The monorail services will be further enhanced through the introduction of a sixth four-coach train in the first quarter of next year, thus shortening the waiting period for passengers, said Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Abdul Hadi Amran.

He said the train was among the seven sets of four-coach trains to be supplied by Scomi Transit Projects Sdn Bhd (STP) to Rapid Rail from March to December 2021.

The seven sets are part of the 12 sets of four-coach trains supplied by Scomi, he told reporters during the Familiarisation of Subsidiary Operations Programme at the Monorail Depot in Brickfields today.

According to him, Rapid Rail currently operates five four-coach and five two-coach monorail trains.

“For every four-coach train brought in, one two-coach train will be taken out, thus increasing the passenger capacity from 214 to 430 during peak hours and with an average train frequency of five minutes,” he said.

Asked about the drop in the number of monorail passengers following the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Rapid expects the number of passengers to increase from 19,000 per day before this to 39,000 per day post-COVID-19.

“In 2015, we even had 65,000 passengers in a day,” he said, adding that he is confident passenger capacity would continue to rise with the increase in the number of four-coach trains.

Meanwhile, Prasarana Group chairman Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, who was also present, said the first five sets of four-coach trains were delivered earlier than scheduled, with two of the trains having been operational since Aug 16 2019 and the other three since Sept 16, 2019.