KUALA LUMPUR, 17 May – The relentless effort by Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) in its drive for innovation has received global recognition from the Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UITP) – the world’s highest body in championing public transport; grouping international operators and transport authorities worldwide.  

UITP, or the International Association of Public Transport and international champion of sustainable urban mobility, has accorded Prasarana’s Rapid Rail with its Certificate of Recognition for innovation at the Montreal 2017 Global Public Transport Summit, which ended today after a three-day conference.

Presented to Rapid Rail Chairman Encik Azhar Noraini by UITP Secretary General, Alain Flausch on the opening day of the summit, the certificate was in recognition of the Vehicle On-Board Computer (VOBC) Error Code Translator App, which was developed by a team of innovative engineers. 

The certification was awarded to Rapid Rail – which is Prasarana’s subsidiary in managing and operating its rail business, after the app was selected as one of the most innovative and successful public transport projects in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Developed in 2015 by a six-man team including a lady engineer, the innovation had previously been accorded three other awards – the Gold Award at the ICQCC BANGKOK 2016; the Gold Award at the Malaysia Productivity Corporation Team Excellence Regional Convention in 2015 and the 3-Star Gold Award at the National Team Excellence Convention two years ago. 

The new app is designed to assist roving engineers at Rapid Rail’s LRT Kelana Jaya Line to cut time in identifying and translating the VOBC error code during cases of failure of the on-board control on the train. Before the development and introduction of the app, the roving engineers would need to carry out the task manually with an average time 8 minutes required. The app allows the task to be completed less than a minute. 

Apart from the Kelana Jaya LRT Line, Rapid Rail also operates two other LRT lines – LRT Ampang Line and LRT Sri Petaling Line, the Monorail Line and MRT Line 1 Sungai Buloh – Kajang; managing a combined daily ridership of more than half a million passengers in the Klang Valley.   

Congratulating Rapid Rail on the Certification of Recognition, Prasarana’s President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Sri Azmi Abdul Aziz expressed hope that recognition from the world body would spur engineers at Prasarana and its subsidiaries to work harder in pursuance of innovation, work excellence and higher productivity.  

“We are truly honoured to have this splendid recognition from UITP, which has always been our guide and benchmark in transformation of public transport services and urban mobility in Malaysia. Prasarana has always placed high regards on innovative works especially amongst our engineers, which we have demonstrated through a formal collaboration with the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) recently. Through this collaboration, Prasarana and IEM will not only be sharing expertise in research works; but also work hand in hand to further elevate the engineering industry in Malaysia which should place emphasis on creative innovation initiatives as well. 

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank UITP for allowing me to share the stage as one of the conference speakers at this distinguished summit to highlight to the international guests on the transformation journey that Malaysia has undertaken,” he said. 

Delivering his talk on the opening day of the summit on May 15, titled ‘Malaysia’s Transformation in Public Transport – Taking Our Cities into The Future’, Dato’ Sri Azmi’s presentation focused on Malaysia’s transformation in Public Transport, in particular for Kuala Lumpur and Greater Kuala Lumpur in its efforts to achieve 40 percent public transport modal share by 2030. 

He also shared with the participants Malaysia’s tremendous growth in economy and the country’s future outlook in the PT landscape to support mobility demands, guided by the holistic National Transformation Plan and the Economic Transformation Plan. 

Held every two years, the UITP Global Public Transport Summit brings together high-level public transport professionals from all over the world to raise the most important issues and opportunities facing the industry. 

The summit in Montreal was attended by participants and exhibitors from over 80 countries; representing some of the most renowned operators, authorities, manufacturers and providers. 

As a passionate champion of sustainable urban mobility, UITP is internationally recognised for its work in advancing the development of this critical policy agenda. UITP has a long history to its name, and is the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes. 

The grouping is made up of 1,400 member companies with members from 96 countries.