| The busy arteries of Kuala Lumpur are kept moving by an impressive public transport infrastructure which includes an array of modern metro rail systems that dissect the citys map, join the dots, and make the urban journey from A to B as swift and manageable as possible. Of the bunch probably the most visually interesting is the KL Monorail which twists and turns its way through the city on twin parallel elevated tracks. It has 11 stations along its 8.6 km length and starts at KL Sentral, the citys main railway station and undisputed public transport hub, before thrusting its way into what is known locally as the Golden Triangle, an array of shopping centres, hotels and commercial skyscrapers in the northeast of the city bordered by three key roads: Jalan Imbi, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Raja Chulanits. The monorail planners aim has been to link up several densely-populated areas that had previously been lacking in access to urban transport and four of its stations smoothly integrate with other rail systems in the city. Work on the KL Monorail started in 1997, and it opened to the public in mid-2003. The ten two-car trains that ply the route, each of which is lavishly decorated in the colours of a different sponsor, were built in Malaysia and can carry up squeeze in 158 passengers in total, with traffic levels reportedly now kicking in at over 20 million journeys a year. It first glance it looks a bit dainty, overshadowed by a thrusting and unyielding metropolis that ... |
