Chan Sow Lin station is an integrated metro station in Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The station serves as an interchange station between the LRT Sri Petaling Line, LRT Ampang Line and the MRT Putrajaya Line. The station consists of an at-grade station for the Ampang and Sri Petaling lines, and an underground station for the Putrajaya line. Both stations are connected by an elevated pedestrian walkway, allowing paid-to-paid integration.[citation needed]
The station is the first station on the common route shared by both the Ampang Line (Sentul Timur-Ampang) and Sri Petaling Line (Sentul Timur-Putra Heights). The station was first opened on 16 December 1996, as part of the first phase of the former STAR LRT system's opening, alongside 13 adjoining stations along the Sultan Ismail-Ampang route.[1]
Chan Sow Lin is the last underground station on the Putrajaya Line, before the line resurfaces at Kuchai station.[citation needed]
The station is located on the southern edge of the incorporated town of Pudu, serving the locality alongside Pudu station and Hang Tuah station. The station was thus intended to serve patrons from the southern end of Pudu, the western end of Taman Maluri and the northwestern tip of Taman Miharja. The latter two localities also have their own namesake stations towards the south and east: Miharja station and Maluri station. The interchange itself is named after an extended portion of Jalan Chan Sow Lin, a road that adjoins the main entrance of the station. The road was named after Chan Sow Lin (陳秀連), 1845–1927, a wealthy businessman in the iron works industry. This man was also known then as The Father of Chinese Iron Works in Malaya.[2]
The station reuses the now defunct Federated Malay States Railway and Malayan Railway (KTM) route between Kuala Lumpur, Ampang and Salak South. Because of this, the station is located close to several former government compounds (Public Works and Engineering Works branches) that was once connected to the KTM line, up until the line was closed during the 1990s to make way for the STAR LRT line.[citation needed]
Between July and December 2016, upon the opening of the Puchong Perdana-Putra Heights stretch of the LRT Sri Petaling Line Extension and the full deployment of the new CSR Zhuzhou trains on the Sentul Timur-Putra Heights stretch, the old Adtranz trains in use since 1996 were reduced to serve only the Ampang-Chan Sow Lin stretch pending the completion of the signalling system in the line. Commuters going from Ampang to Kuala Lumpur city centre (i.e. Masjid Jamek) or vice versa were required to alight at Chan Sow Lin and switch from the Adtranz trains to the new CSR Zhuzhou trains.[citation needed]
Direct travel between Ampang and Sentul Timur, as it was before July 2016, was restored on 1 December 2016, following the completion of the upgrading of the signalling system on the Ampang-Chan Sow Lin stretch, which also sees the wholescale replacement of the old Adtranz trains with the new CSR Zhuzhou trains.[3]
