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Kuala Lumpur LRT
>made for Commonwealth games 1998
>2 initial lines; Ampang Lone (dubbed "STAR") and Kelana Jaya Line ("Putra")
>meant for tourist/spectators transit as well as to showcase Malaysia as a developed country(or at least as good as other tiger economy countries)
>while not totally built without foresight, (let alone a white elephant) the lines were built as standalone system and has minimal,if not nonexistent, connectivity with other public transport
>the two lines has no proper interchanges(until the extension project finally included one, almost 18 years later). Instead, the lines are connected with a monorail line (which is in even worse situation than the LRT lines)
>both lines use different signalling system, thus preventing switching of trains to another lines (because both lines were managed by 2 different companies)
>previous administration wouldn't bother with public transport, and focused on building more motorways instead
Well at least the entire infrastructure is solid, suggesting that they didn'tt cheapened out on construction materials/standard.
Both companies who ran the lines went under and the government are forced to bail them out (and consolidate both lines state-owned companies).
Both lines underwent massive expansion/modernization programme and after more than 6 years (and several billion dollars) later, while the LRT service has improved leaps and bounds compared to 18 years ago, the day zero design flaw is still evident (too many interchanges between the lines, some of the stations are underutilised and others). They tried to alleviate the problems by introducing more feeder buses but, while the feeder buses are a great substitute, it felt like a temporary, duct tape solution
The circle line (to connect both LRT lines as well as another new LRT line and 2 new MRT lines) is under the design phase. Lets hope that they take the lesson to heart this time
