Talking

The newly initiated public transport panel in Malaysia announced some plans to temporarily solve a few of issues on particular routes.Except expanding the current LRT routes,the panel works with RapidKL to open up some BET(Bus Express Transit) and BRT(Bus Rapid Transit) services by steps.

BET is a system where the buses utilise less congested highways to link heavily populated areas and the city centre. Naturally, by using the highways, travel time is reduced as the highways are less congested than the normal routes. The service will have limited stops and rely on feeder buses and park-n-ride facilities to ensure sufficient ridership. With BET, travel time is expected to be reduced by up to 50 per cent on certain BETs.There are 2 routes being added into the running map:RapidBET1 – Kota Damansara to KL Sentral & Pasar Seni via the Penchala Link & RapidBET2 – Bandar Sungai Long  to KL Sentral & Pasar Seni via the Grand Saga Highway.

For this initial introductory stage, BET will run at 15 to 20-minute intervals during the morning and evening peak hours. Frequency and service periods will be increased at a later stage depending on the demand for each route.

My two cents:

I’m happy to see that the government finally realized the importance of national public transport system.As my view,a higher efficient public transport system could save a lot of money and time for the residents and indirectly improve the quality of life as people may not be necessary to buy a private car and so no expenses on petrol as well.Everybody likes less congested roads,right?

Recently I visited Rapid KL website and was surprised to see the disclosed information about the proposed extension of LRT lines.

In fact the news has spread over for more than 2 years,but there are always no updates and so I just thought that the extension should have been cut on the half way.

I’m so curious on the whole project.I tried to click the related link and it was redirected to Department of Railways-which is under the Ministry of Transport.However,it made me sad because the link supposed to show the details of the project didn’t exist yet.

I just want to say the extension of LRT lines could benefit millions of people who live in the Klang Valley area,but if it fails,it fails many people too.The involving parties should take some necessary conversations,especially with the potential passengers-those people have bulks of reasons to know what will happen in front of them.

I wish it will be updated at the website as soon as possible.

[Update]:Sep. 21st,2009 Today I tried to visit the official website of LRT extension.I was surprised that it finally works.So I wish the people who has knowledge,special request or own ideas could give some feedbacks there.You may change your life!

If you always take LRTs for working or studying,you may hate that crowded environment during the peak hours.Well,I think you could get relaxing from the fourth quarter of this year because some official sources indicate the new 4-car trains will start to run in Kelana Jaya Line from that date.

Another evidence which could approve the new trains coming is the enhanced working on the gates at some LRT stations(Kelana Jaya, Taman Bahagia, Kerinchi, Bangsar,KL Sentral, Masjid Jamek, KLCC, Ampang Park,Wangsa Maju, Gombak) recently.More automatic gates are being set up for fitting a larger volume of people when the new and longer trains are introduced.The whole project is planned to be ended in August.

Anyway,I believe it’s a real good news for people always travelling between PJ and KL by LRT.Let’s wait and see the progress!

I always take RapidKL buses nowadays because it’s quite cheap(RM1-RM2 for a whole day riding on the same types of lines) and most of time under schedule in running(what I met).

But I think the happy time will be ended soon because the federal government just cancelled the allowances for RapidKL on fuel which means RapidKL will surely change their tariff.The reason from Cabinet is that government is not willing to make a monopoly on city bus service,however they think the allowance providing to RapidKL probably affects the matter because the company can give passangers cheaper tickets than other companies in the way to occupy the majority of the market.

I think if a company,especially a public service company,is able to do its business while benefiting most of citizens in the country,the company is successful enough and it’s well-performed.I admit that the monopoly will cause no competition and may lead to a bad situation that the only company in that cycle affecting the ‘whole world’ and control the absolute voice to ‘the world’.But the decision from the government is doing the same thing to their citizens.Soon we can never enjoy such a cheap trip by bus and I don’t think the competition here on public transportation is strong to force the invovling companies improving their services.

I think the government should not cut the allowance because the money paid to that company benefits consumers.Therefore,the government should better to set up a system to evaluate and assess the qulity of service of all public transportation companies whilst our consumers have our rights to take part in marking on them and finally depending on that result to contribute the allowance:only those high-voting companies can get the allowance.

Will it work?Ask your smart minister.