The worst bus route in KL?

TRANSIT took note of this article/complaint in the Malay Mail that identifies RapidKL bus route U65 (KL-Taman Megah Shah Alam-Putra Heights) as the worst bus route in KL.

U65 the worst bus route in KL
Reena Raj
Friday, August 21st, 2009 05:35:00

ALICIA is frustrated by the very unreliable RapidKL U65 bus service. She and many other residents are daily users of this service, for no other bus company services Taman Alam Megah in Shah Alam. However, she said, the buses arrive rather infrequently, with exceptionally long intervals between each bus.

“Sometimes, there is only one bus every hour or longer for the Pasar Seni-Taman Alam Megah-Pasar Seni
route.”

When the bus arrives at the depot, ALICIA said, the drivers would walk off, ignoring the waiting passengers
and return to drive the bus “as and when they feel like it”.

She added: “Due to that, there always are many people waiting at the bus stops when the bus arrives. Since
the bus is packed by then, the drivers sometimes skip stops.”

ALICIA said there have been several instances when she has been caught in such a situation. “I have run
behind the bus many times when the driver refused to stop.”

The problem also occurs in Brickfields, as the bus drivers often arbitrarily change the route.

“Most of the drivers will not go through Brickfields. They will cut through Jalan Istana and go on past MidValley instead.

“There have been many times when my sister, waiting at the MidValley bus stop at 6.30pm, gets to board the bus in about 30 minutes, while I am still waiting fruitlessly in Brickfields.

“She will arrive home while I will still be at Brickfields until 9pm,” ALICIA said. Many residents of Taman
Alam Megah, she added, are fed up with the situation and hope RapidKL will improve this service.

● RAPIDKL communications general manager Ebi Azly Abdullah expresses regret that such incidents are occurring. He said all drivers have to stop at the approved bus stops should there be any passenger flagging them down, or pressing the bell to get down.

“We are unable to take action against the driver(s) involved as details such as date, time, bus plate number or bus ID have not been provided to help us investigate.

“Nevertheless, we have reminded all U65 drivers to stop at the approved bus stops when required to do so,” Ebi said.

TRANSIT Says:

We appreciate the efforts of Alicia to complain on the service of RapidKL bus Route U65.

As above, people have to provide information with their complaints. Date, time, direction (towards KL or Shah Alam), route/location of complaint and Bus ID number are all very helpful in narrowing down complaints to a particular driver or set of drivers.

Bus ID stickers can be found on the back of the bus in the top left corner as well as the right side of the bus over the driver’s door.

For more info on complaining or giving feedback to RapidKL please see our earlier posting. For info on complaining to the CVLB see this posting.