KL Monorail

This urban monorail line was opened on 31 August 2003, with 11 stations running on two parallel elevated tracks. It connects the KL Sentral transport hub in the south and Titiwangsa in the north with the "Golden Triangle", a commercial, shopping, and entertainment area consisting of the Bukit Bintang area, and surrounded by Jalan Imbi, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jalan Sultan Ismail, and Jalan Raja Chulan. The monorail scheme was announced by Kuala Lumpur City Hall in January 1990 after the Malaysian Government gave the go-ahead to the scheme at a cabinet meeting in June 1989. Its cost was then estimated at RM 143 million. The , 22-station system is designed to carry more than 34,000 passengers a day on a 20-minute loop through Kuala Lumpur's bustling commercial core. The plan is to build it in two phases: in the first, 16 stations will be served over ; and in the later stage, another loop will be added. The first phase was expected to be completed within two years. According to plans dating back to the 1990s, the planned line was to have two branches (similar to the Ampang and Sri Petaling Lines), with one branch going via Maharajalela station and then on to the city centre, and the other branch going to , , Jalan Klang Lama and ending at Kampung Pasir, which will probably include integration with KTM Komuter's at or stations. KL Sentral and Tun Sambanthan were planned to be the common stations. Ultimately only the downtown branch was built, due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. While another plan from Kuala Lumpur People-Mover Rapid Transit (PRT), under the "Kuala Lumpur Linear City" development plan, depicts that the project will include building of twin track monorail guideway beams, 20 elevated stations, two depots and 14 monorail trains. There will be two phases to the project's construction. Between Jalan Tun Razak and Brickfields, Section 1 will span approximately 8 kilometres, while Section 2 would connect Tun Sambanthan and KL Sentral Station via a 12-stop shuttle service. Section 2, which is unfinished and spans , begins in Brickfields and travels via Kampung Abdullah Hukum, Lembah Pantai, Pantai Dalam, Taman Desa, OUG, and finally ends at Kampung Pasir. KL PRT Sdn Bhd would oversee the project management while carrying out the PRT transport system's construction, upkeep, and operation during the course of a 30-year concession. The PRT system planned to accommodate up to 18,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) with 168 seats in each train and 630 passengers per train at a headway of up to two minutes between trains. The first section of the project, which runs between P. Ramlee Station and Hang Tuah Station, was supposed to be finished in time for trial runs during the Commonwealth Games in September 1998. Construction on the project started in December 1996 and Sections 1 and 2 were scheduled to be finished in early 1999 and 2000 respectively. Work was scheduled to begin in June 1990, but was postponed to May 1991 after the city's mayor complained that tenders submitted for preparatory work were too high. There has been no activity on the project since and few details are available on how the project is expected to proceed. The main contractor is a local company, BNK, which had little success in its search for backers to finance its share of the venture. Part of its problem in securing money stems from the project's escalating cost estimates, and part from its lack of a track record in handling such huge projects. The line and number of stations remains unchanged since 2003. Based on the 1999 transit map, the KL Monorail line originally had 19 stations, starting from Titiwangsa, Chow Kit, Wawasan, P. Ramlee, Raja Chulan, Bukit Bintang, Imbi, Hang Tuah, Merdeka, Sultan Sulaiman (cancelled), Tun Sambanthan, and a subsequently unbuilt extension which consisted of stations in Syed Putra, Taman Seputeh, Abdullah Hukum, Lembah Pantai, Pantai Dalam, Taman Desa, OUG and Kampung Pasir. Since the start of operations, the KL Infrastructure Group suffered losses, largely due to depreciation and interest repayment costs. On 30 April 2004, KL Infra posted a net loss of MYR 46.24 million on a MYR 15.08 million revenue. KL Infra had also taken up a MYR 300 million Malaysian government loan and a MYR 260 million infrastructure loan from the Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) (The development bank of Malaysia) (, BPM). In addition, KL Infra had proposed to buy MTrans' three subsidiary companies to improve its business, but failed after Scomi bought up some of the targeted companies. SPN gave its agreement in principle to the takeover on 22 December 2006 and a follow-up meeting was held on 6 February 2007 with the government on the takeover of its operational assets and assumption of loan liabilities. A due diligence audit was conducted from 5 March 2007 to 27 April 2007 by consultants appointed by the government. Following agreement to the takeover, BPM granted KL Monorail an extension until 29 April 2007 for an interest repayment amounting to MYR 4,244,801.91, which was originally due on 29 December 2006. However, the takeover seemed to have suffered a setback at least from the perspective of KL Infra when on 26 March 2007, it was notified by BPM that it was not going to entertain any further extensions for interest repayment. Subsequently on 27 April 2007, the bank notified that it would not be granting any moratorium on interest repayments. On 29 April 2007, KL Monorail was not able to make the repayment of the interest instalment which had become due. One of the effects of the appointment of receivers and managers is the possibility that KL Infra would not be receiving any compensation for KL Monorail should the takeover by SPN have gone through. The trading of KL Infra was suspended from 15 May 2007. On the same day, KL Infra's board announced to Bursa Malaysia that it had formed the opinion that it was not solvent and would not be able to pay all its debts in full within a period not exceeding twelve months. On 28 November 2007, Prasarana Malaysia signed a sale-and-purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems, effectively making Prasarana the operator of KL Monorail, and resulting in Prasarana taking over the MYR 882 million BPM loan. ==List of stations==