Letter to Editor
We wish to refer to YS Chan’s article published on June 20, 2022 in the Opinion section entitled “ETS breakdown: Does KTM have any contingency plans?”
On behalf of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB), we appreciate Mr Chan’s concern and comments regarding the recent ETS incidents involving train 9178 from KL Sentral to Butterworth.
KTMB further expresses our sincere regret to our passengers for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected event.
To clarify, the cause of interruption was due to power outage, as some abandoned trunking cable that accommodate the high voltage cable (belonging to the highway authority) fell onto the KTMB Overhead Line.
This has thus resulted in the disruption to both KTMB lines’ electricity supply along a sector approaching the Butterworth station.
As a result, the train was forced to stop at Bukit Tengah Station, affecting three other KTM Komuter services.
Our electrification team immediately opened an investigation to determine the source of the outage, which took until 10.46pm hours to complete. Service was restored around 4.45am.
Since the repair work took longer than expected, our customer service team issued an apology and posted an announcement about the disruption on our official KTMB Facebook page.
Affected passengers were advised to arrange alternative transportation to expedite their journey, as the trip from Bukit Tengah to Butterworth will take an additional 30 minutes.
We also further coordinated with our appointed bus companies to provide bus services to mitigate and resolve the issue for passengers to travel to Butterworth station.
At 12.17am, KTMB provided six buses to carry all of our stranded passengers, with four buses for the ETS passengers and two buses for the KTM Komuter passengers.
We are striving to improve the quality of our services by constantly improving our standard operating procedures and contingency plan especially during any untoward situation.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
