Train operation tests on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Seac Pai Van section and Cotai-Hengqin section resumed on Friday, the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) has announced.
Train operation tests on the two sections had been suspended after two LRT trains crashed at Union Hospital Station in south Cotai on May 8 when tests were carried out on the system’s Seac Pai Van section.
Union Hospital Station is one of the Seac Pai Van section’s two stations.
The bureau announced on May 10 that the accident was caused by human error by a technician from the LRT system’s supplier.
After the crash, the bureau ordered the LRT system’s supplier, as well as all other private entities participating in the train operation tests, to review their train testing procedures, come up with improved measures, and strengthen the training of their technicians, with the aim of preventing accidents of the same type from occurring again.
A DSOP statement on Friday said that the participating entities had improved their train testing procedures and rolled out various improved measures strengthening the supervision of the testing process, adding that they completed a trial run of the improved measures in the early hours of Friday.
The statement pointed out that as all the participating entities have got their improved measures off the ground, the bureau then “immediately” resumed train operation tests on the Seac Pai Van section and the Cotai-Hengqin section.
The Macau government is aiming to open both the Seac Pai Van and the Cotai-Hengqin sections by the end of this year.
This photo released by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) on Friday shows a Light Rail Transit (LRT) train ready for operation testing at Union Hospital Station in south Cotai in the wee hours of that day.
