Time For Some Dignity In Malaysia's Public Transport

By Melati Mohd Ariff, BERNAMA, 22nd October 2008

Over the years, complaints on the shoddy services offered in the country's public transport sector have continued to snowball and reached colossal proportions.

This had forced Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take to the ground to witness and experience for himself the daily mayhem and disorder faced by commuters in the city.

At the end of the Prime Minister's day trip, he arrived at the conclusion that a more efficient, reliable and integrated public transportation, which provides seamless travel and greater frequency of services, is required.

In the Klang Valley alone, an average of 400,000 people use the bus services daily while another 350,000 go up RapidKLs trains. Overall, RapidKL provides 44 per cent of the public transport services in the Klang Valley.

These were some of the statistics in the 2009 Budget speech, delivered by Abdullah in the Dewan Rakyat last Aug 29.

To further improve public transport's efficiency, the government has pledged a sum of RM35 billion to be utilised for the period 2009-2014.

Improvement plans include enhancing the capacity of existing rail services, building new tracks and increasing the number of buses.Regular public transport users including those in the Klang Valley now harbour high hopes that the endless woes they are facing daily would be things of the past.

ATTITUDE CHANGE
Amidst the government's multi-billion Ringgit plans, the erroneous notion that public transportation is for only the low-income group should be corrected.

"We limit ourselves by assuming that public transport is for the poor people which is really not the case. One of its functions is to provide mobility service for the public and it is not just for people who cannot afford private transport but also for people who have the option of not using private transport," said Moaz Yusof Ahmad, a public transport activist.He is the adviser of 'Transit', the Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit-Klang Valley), a newly established public transport activist group.

Moaz said there were two other functions of public transport which were equally important, namely development and business.

A good system of public transport, he said, would encourage the kind of development which was good for the city and its people.

"It would create urban centres that are people-friendly, pedestrian-friendly, the city becomes more livable because people can walk and spend money. They do not have to drive, park or go through traffic jams.

"This community will also save money as the government can save money on roads and transportation and so can the people. We do not have this community in the Klang Valley except in a few of the older areas. Most of our newer communities are designed around cars," he said.

With available infrastructure, profitable businesses can also be generated around public transport stations. Where services are prominent, business operators can also expect increase in profit and property owners can command higher rentals.

"You have the opportunity to advertise and sell land around public transport stations, which in itself can be a profitable enterprise," said Moaz who is an economics lecturer in a Subang Jaya private college.

PLANNING
Moaz argued that issuing more bus or taxi permits and providing more train lines or coaches would not solve public transport woes without proper planning or organisation that would severely impact reliability.

"If we do not include public transport in initial planning to fulfill the transport needs of the community, we are going to see serious problems in the future," he stressed.According to Moaz, the main shortcoming in public transportation is the complete lack of wholesome or holistic investment.

"We built the LRT line and say the problem is solved and now we can move people. The point is when they get out of the LRT, there is another set of problems the commuters have to deal with. This is what you call the first mile and the last mile connectivity.

"The existing number of feeder buses are inadequate or unreliable and if we do not make the whole service reliable from the first mile to the last mile, then we are not going to get the people to use public transport no matter how many LRTs are built," said Moaz.

SPEND LESS FOR MORE
In terms of costs against the benefits, Transit considers that the LRT is actually one of the least effective choices of public transport.

Citing the Kelana Jaya LRT line, Moaz said currently it was running with double-coach trains and moving about 9,000 passengers in one direction each hour.

"The Kelana Jaya LRT will move approximately 20,000 passengers per hour when they operate the four-coach trains at the end of 2009.

"If we need to move 9,000 or 20,000 people, actually we should be building monorails as it costs less and can move the same number of people," said Moaz.

He also believed that extension of the Kelana Jaya line should continue right to the Shah Alam Stadium as there is ample undeveloped land to the west of the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE).

"If we go to the Shah Alam Stadium, we have access not only to Ara Damansara but also Subang, Kampung Melayu Subang and the rest.

"The stadium area is a very large spot, very open and we can have room for a depot, parking, and express bus lanes.He said the stadium is located near two highways - the Federal Highway and NKVE, therefore it is viable for a reliable bus system that could move people from Shah Alam to other areas including Subang Jaya, Kota Kemuning, Klang and even Kuala Lumpur.Transit also suggests plan to extend the LRT from Seri Petaling to Petaling Jaya South and through Petaling Jaya, all the way to Kepong and back to Sentul.

"The Klang Valley Transport Study identifies Petaling Jaya line traveling from PJ South to Taman Tun Dr Ismail. This line can be integrated within our proposed extension to Petaling Jaya. When completed there would be a KL-PJ loop line that could move 60,000 passengers per hour. This would remove thousands of car from the MRRII daily," said Moaz.

Transit has also identified a solution for Puchong and western Petaling Jaya.

"Jalan Klang Lama and Jalan Puchong are large roads which move thousands of cars per day. If we expand the KL Monorail to four or six-carriage trains and extend it to MidValley, and then along Jalan Klang Lama and Jalan Puchong, we can move 40,000 passengers per hour. MidValley will benefit and we would reduce traffic on Jalan Puchong.He said in the long term, Transit's approach would build more economic growth for the Klang Valley and Malaysia.

PROVIDE MORE FOR BUSES
The bus service is another area which Transit has great interest in.According to Muhammad Zulkarnain Hamzah, Transit's spokesperson, buses are very much affected by the traffic congestion.He said highways and expressways could be used as alternative routes for buses.

As an illustration, he said, 30 buses were more than capable to relieve the maximum amount of free flow traffic that the 1.2 billion Ringgit Akleh( Ampang-KL Elevated Highway) can sustain at any one time.He also proposed that expressways be used as 'Expressway Rapid Transit' (ERT) tracks with ERT buses functioning as 'trains'.

Muhammad Zulkarnain said bus 'stations' could be built on top of these 'tracks' at identified strategic transit points with high suburban population."Bus terminals for suburban feeder bus services together with depots and car parks can be built inside the suburban area and next to the ERT points so that transit time can be cut short," he explained.Accordingly, three strategic Kuala Lumpur gateway points for ERT buses can be created at KL Sentral/Mid Valley, Imbi (near the Pandan Roundabout) and Sentul Timur with dedicated bus ramps to Jalan Travers for direct access to NKVE and NPE, KL-Putrajaya and Duke Expressway respectively.

The gateway points should be conveniently linked to Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT Lines besides KL Monorail while the Dang Wangi LRT Station could be the main gateway point that caters to ERT buses from Ampang via Akleh, he said."This is because it sits strategically at the west end point of Akleh. To fill up the demand during rush hours, express bus operators should be allowed to bid for periodical contract to serve ERT buses in which they will be paid based on a set of criteria set up by the transport authority," Muhammad Zulkarnain explained.

He said all buses and bus stops as well as mass-transit terminals should be designed based on the universal accessibility principle that would speed up bus service and encourage people to use them.POLITICAL WILL To fix the public transport system, it needs a strong political will. It also requires intervention from higher ups as voiced out by both Moaz and Muhammad Zulkarnain.

They proposed the setting up of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Public Transport led by members of Parliaments from both sides of the divide."The infrastructure is already there. It is just getting everybody to cooperate for the sake of facing this problem and not thinking of their particular vested interest," said Moaz.He also stressed that a proper public transport system that provides a level of standard should also be available across the nation and not just only for the Klang Valley.

"If we stick to what we are doing, we are going to stagnate. Jakarta, Bangkok and Singapore have invested in their public transport networks. Jakarta has an exemplary Bus Rapid Transit System. They built seven lines in four years and three more are under construction.

"Bangkok has expanded their Metro and Skytrain and they are building Bus Rapid Transit and Airport Express line. Singapore is building three MRT lines and three more are being planned.

"There is a lot of work ahead but it can be done if we just change our attitude, our perception in public transport," said Moaz