A Malaysian-French Seminar on Railways and Public Transport organised by UBIFRANCE, French Trade Commission in Malaysia in partnership with the Malaysian Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), have attracted much interest from the Malaysian public and private sector, which had mobilized senior level officials to attend the presentations and discussions: SPAD, MRT Co., Prasarana, KTMB, RapidKL, Scomi, MMC Gamuda, etc. The delegation of French companies highlighted the excellent skills of its rail and urban transport sector, which included the engineering technical aspects, track laying, maintenance, security, etc. Nine French companies, many of which have already started their current successful business in Malaysia, comprised of: ALCATEL-LUCENT, ALSTOM TRANSPORT, CATU S.A, COLAS RAIL, EGIS RAIL, ETF Eurovia Travaux Ferroviaires, SYSTRA, THALES, and VOSSLOH COGIFER. This event is a continuation of similar meetings held in Singapore the day before. For reference, Malaysia has embarked on numerous projects and urban rail line as part of its program of economic transformation. The country is preparing a complete restructure of public transport of Grand Kuala Lumpur, including among others 2 extensions and 3 new subway lines (100 stations for 150 km, for an approximate total amount of 10 billion €). In addition, the renovation and a second track of its national rail network should be completed around 2015 and the creation of a new high speed line is being seriously studied to connect Kuala Lumpur to the Malaysian border with Singapore.

Thales has been awarded a contract of 13.5 million euros, to upgrade Kuala Lumpur’s Monorail signalling system. For this change, Scomi Engineering Bhd, which is delivering this upgrade to the operator Prasarana, has selected Thales to supply a turnkey Signalling Solution. The Monorail, operating since 2003 in Malaysia’s capital, is now expanding its passenger transportation capacity by the introduction of new rolling stock with four- carriage trains and by the replacement of the existing signalling along the eleven-stations of the Monorail. The scope of this contract includes a new signaling system for the main line section and a depot, based on an ETCS Level 1 solution, interlocking systems and a new Operational Control Centre.  Thales, will also install on-board ETCS level 1 computers on 12 new vehicles. Thales proven solutions and expertise on rail and urban domains allowed the delivery of an innovative solution that was integrated to address this type of networks. This project represents a particular challenge for Thales since the system has to be implemented in a short timeframe and without impacting the daily operation of this vital infrastructure.   The execution of the contract will be concluded by August 2012, and the new structure is expected to be inaugurated in November 2012. “Thales Malaysia is very proud to have been chosen by Scomi and Prasarana for this project. The decision demonstrates our understanding of the customer’s requirements and the challenges of developing its public transportation system, an understanding based on our long-standing involvement in the Malaysian market and our partnership with local actors. This new endorsement is further encouragement for Thales not only to continue delivering signalling solutions that achieve full customer satisfaction, but also to support Prasarana in its future programmes by steadily increasing local content and teaming with trusted, professional local partners” said Jean-Philippe Durieux, Thales  Country Director for Malaysia. Source: Thales press room

Kuala Lumpur, Tuesday, 21 June 2011. Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) today issued the Letter of Award to CMC-Colas-Uniway (CCU) to undertake works on the abovementionned project wort RM 673,920,651.04. The job entails the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of system works for the Kelana Jaya Line Extansion project. The Kelanan Jaya Line will be extended from Kelana Jaya Station by another 17 kilometers and reaching up to Putra Heights through 13 new stations. The LRT extension project was announced in Budget 2009 und undertaken to improve the efficiency of the public transportation in the Klang Valley. Source: Media Release from Prasarana.