New services available at Kelana Jaya and Ampang

Finishing touches: Workers completing their work at the LRT track near the Putra Heights station along the Kelana Jaya line in Petaling Jaya

PETALING JAYA: The public transport network in Klang Valley is expected to enter a new phase with the opening of the extension to the two LRT lines – Kelana Jaya and Ampang – on Thursday.

Passengers can start taking the trains once the services are operational in the morning.

The launch will be carried out by the Prime Minister in the afternoon.

The launch of the extension to the two lines, which will serve dense residential areas such as Puchong, Subang Jaya, Ara Damansara and USJ, will benefit hundreds of thousands of commuters and form an important link to the entire network that will also see the construction and completion of three MRT lines and another LRT 3.

The Kelana Jaya extension, which will run for 17km with 12 new stations from Lembah Subang to Putra Heights, will see an additional 170,000 passengers daily while that for Ampang will see an extra 130,000 commuters every day.

In a statement yesterday, Prasarana Rail and Infrastructure Projects Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Zohari Sulaiman said it had received support letters from various agencies for its stations under the Kelana Jaya line, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ).

“The One Stop Centre of MPSJ has accepted, checked and acknowledged the submission, including the certificate of completion and compliance (CCC) issued by the architects.

“For the remaining three Ampang line stations, we have also received support letters from various agencies, including MPSJ, Syabas, TNB, IWK and the Fire and Rescue Services Department,” he said.

“Once the documents are submitted and acknowledged, the submission process is considered complete,” he said, adding that operations for the extension would start from Thursday as scheduled.

Zohari said it had already created more than 2,200 parking bays along the Kelana Jaya Line Extension as well as finalised the routes of the feeder buses.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the newly-extended lines would encourage more Malaysians to use public transport.

“Well done, I’ve raised my own key performance index (KPI) from 470,000 to 500,000 ridership. The new extension will motivate more people to use public transport,” he said, adding that bus and taxi services would also be enhanced to help connect public to their homes and train stations.

“The railway lines are now fully utilised. We have trains travelling to Klang from Kuala Lumpur every 15 minutes and we are aiming to improve this to seven minutes.”

source: Thestar