The Chinese-made trainsets meant to be utilised on Padang Besar Electric Train Service (ETS) route have yet to be approved by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), but Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai says that the issues are minor, and that only a little bit of work remains to be done before they are able to enter service, Bernama reports.
"There is no problem, actually. It is only that some tuning is needed on the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. I leave it to the technical teams of KTMB and SPAD to evaluate the safety features of the new trainsets," he said.
The two new trains, ETS201 and ETS202, are built by CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive - ETS201 failed the compulsory "fault-free running" test eight days in a row when it was first tested in June. It was reported that the ATP system - a core system component - triggered whenever the train entered the branch line to Butterworth during trials, slowing the train down.
The issues revolve around faults with the unit's automatic train protection (ATP) system, which automatically applies the brakes whenever it senses a fault or dangerous condition and is meant to prevent collisions or derailment when adherence to signals or speed restrictions are not met.
It was reported earlier this week that CSR was working round-the-clock to fix the problem, and that SPAD had given the company until Thursday to solve the problem.
For the moment, existing trainsets were being deployed on the Ipoh-Padang Besar part of the line, pending approval from SPAD for the new train sets, Liow said. Aside from the Ipoh-Padang Besar transit service, KTM also launched the KL-Padang Besar express service on July 10.
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