Business

Monday August 18, 2008

Commuters pin hopes on Budget 2009

By SHARIDAN M. ALI and Yvonne Tan


PUBLIC transportation seems to be the best option to help consumers mitigate the effects of the recent sharp fuel price hike that have burnt large holes in their pockets.

However, the many complaints about the public transport system has highlighted the fact that there is still much room for improvement.

So, what is in the works to improve the current system?

Presently, the public is anxiously anticipating the Government’s announcement on public transport allocation via Budget 2009 that will be tabled on Aug 29.

Suffian Baharuddin

It looks like a huge allocation to improve the Malaysian public transport system is inevitable although there are concerns as to whether the expected huge investment will have an adverse impact on the country’s coffers in view of the current economic uncertainty.

The need for fast improvement in the local public transport system is further fuelled by the huge investment plans of the country’s two neighbours – Singapore and Thailand.

Compared with Singapore and Thailand (Bangkok), Malaysia has yet to announce any significant investments to upgrade its public transport system so far.

Both neighbours are reported to be investing more than RM40bil each to upgrade their public transportation.

An artist's impression of the new four-car train which will be used on the Kelana Jaya LRT line.

Malaysia also has a low percentage in public transport usage due to unsatisfactory services. The Government is targeting 40% usage of public transport in the next five years from the present 20%. In some developed countries, 50% to 70% of the population uses public transport.

Rapid improvement

Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RapidKL), the only multimodal public transport provider in the country, is pumping in more assets and improving its services in view of increasing ridership due to the recent fuel price hike.

RapidKL, a wholly-owned Government company under the Ministry of Finance Inc, is the main service provider of mass public transportation in the Klang Valley via an integrated rail and bus network.

It operates two light rail transit (LRT) networks – the Kelana Jaya Rail Line and the Ampang Rail Line together with a network of 161 bus routes.

All the assets operated by RapidKL are owned by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB), a wholly-owned Government company which was set up to own the assets of selected public transport companies.

RapidKL chief executive officer Suffian Baharuddin told StarBiz that since the fuel price hike, RapidKL had seen bus ridership increase by 7.5% to 392,654 passengers per day.

“Because of that, RapidKL is proposing to increase the frequency of its bus service along existing routes. However, we are currently facing a shortage of bus drivers.

More are opting for public tgransport following the recent hike in petrol price.

“We have already carried out an aggressive recruitment programme for new bus drivers,” he said.

He added that RapidKL offered attractive remuneration for bus drivers where they could earn in excess of RM1,500 a month, based on basic salary and productivity incentives.

“We also provide services to housing estates where demand is not yet developed. These social routes in the Klang Valley, in many instances, are only provided by RapidKL,” he said.

Since its inception in 2004, RapidKL has increased its coverage of bus services from 638 housing estates to close to 1,000 housing estates.

RapidKL provides an estimated 55% out of the overall stage bus services in the Klang Valley.

In terms of overall improvement of stage bus services in Klang Valley, Suffian hoped that all bus operators could also serve a mixture of high-demand routes and social routes as currently practiced by RapidKL.

“We are also talking to various local authorities for improvements in the provision of bus lanes and bus stops,” he said.

Light rail transit

In terms of the LRT, Suffian said ridership had increased by 3.9% to 326,095 passengers per day since the fuel price increase.

“Demand for LRT service along the Kelana Jaya Rail Line is very strong, with a huge number of passengers travelling on this system during peak hours. Therefore, the volume of passengers at the stations are overwhelming during these times,” he said.

He said SPNB had acquired additional trains with larger capacity for the Kelana Jaya Rail Line.

“The new trains are expected to be in service by end-2009 and will double the current passenger capacity of 160,000 passengers daily to more than 300,000 passengers daily.

“We encourage people living near LRT stations at the Ampang Rail Line to use the LRT service to travel as it can still cater to additional demand.

“RapidKL could also increase the number of trains to cater for any significant growth in passenger demand for the Ampang Rail Line,” he added.

In addition, Suffian said, RapidKL provided feeder services to most LRT stations along the Ampang Rail Line.

“The LRT is an efficient and cost-effective mode of travel as the service is not exposed to traffic jams caused by various factors such as road accidents, traffic diversions, road obstructions and weather conditions as well as seasonal increase in volume of traffic,” he said.

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