Updates #86
1. Article: Pedestrian bridge near Sungai Besi LRT station ready for use (The Star, 21 May 2011)
2. Article: KLIA Ekspres value fares for the holidays (NST) – Express Rail Link (ERL) is offering its Group Saver and Family Package for families and friends travelling on KLIA Ekspres. More information at www.KLIAekpres.com.
[TRANSIT: The CEO of ERL Sdn. Bhd. also notes that the ERL has a 99.7% on-time performance rating.]
3. Article: Stray dog brought Penang hill train service to a halt (The Star, 17 May 2011) – A stray dog has been blamed for the 26-hour breakdown of the Penang Hill train service on May 3 according to Penang ang Hill Corporation (PHC) general manager Datuk Lee Kah Choon.
Lee said the dog hit a sensitive component of the coach – the power collector, which collects electricity from the track to power the air-conditioner, computer and door systems.
4. Letter: Penang tourism: Standard fare for all the best solution
(NST, 17 May 2011) – James Justice, a regular visitor to Penang, argues that having separate fares for foreigners on the Penang Hill Railway will actually discourage tourism.
5. Letter: Bus driver not rude for not stopping (The Star, 16 May 2011) – “Don’t blame others” of Kuala Lumpur argues that passengers should not expect the bus to stop for them if they chase after it, as bus drivers have a schedule to keep. This letter is in response to a complaint from a public transport user that he was nearly hit by a bus (while trying to catch it).
6. Article: Traders at Puduraya Terminal question rationale for 500% service charge increase (The Star, 17 May 2011) – Puduraya Terminal Tenants and Traders Association chairman Sabarudin Ab Razak, 57, said they used to pay RM713 for rental and RM387.50 for service charge before the terminal was renovated.
“Now, the rental has been reduced to RM365 but the service charge increased to RM2,482,” said Sabarudin, who has been trading at the terminal for more than 30 years.
[TRANSIT: You have to wonder about the rationale for decreasing the rental cost but increasing the service charge by that much!]
7. Article: Siemens enters LRT fray (The Star, 14 May 2011) – German engineering group, Siemens will be participating in the tender for the systems package (resignalling works) for the Ampang Line (including the LRT extension). The tender closed on 16 May 2011.
Besides Siemens, some of the big names that may be pitting for a slice of Malaysia’s transport system includes Bombardier, Colas, Thales, Invensys, Samsung, Daewoo and Ansaldo. Alstom, the existing signaling supplier, however, seems to be rather quiet.
Siemens will be working with local partner Scomi Engineering Bhd (Parent company of Scomi Rail, builder of the KL Monorail) for the LRT extension if it wins the contract.
8. Article: Survey shows nearly 8 in 10 Singapore public transport commuters dissatisfied (The Malaysian Insider, 16 May 2011) – Singapore ranked 18th in a survey of 23 cities on public and private transport journey experiences according to the inaugural Journey Experience Index by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan.
Singapore scored 54.5 points, below the global benchmark of 61. Those travelling on public transport indicated a higher level of discontent: Out of 740 public transport commuters and 674 private transport commuters polled here, 77.5 per cent and 57 per cent respectively were dissatisfied with their journey experience.
… One reason Singapore did not do better in the index could be the relatively high percentage of journeys made on public transport, as cities with higher car usage tended to record greater satisfaction in the overall journey experience, said Mr Vivek Vaidya, Frost’s Asia-Pacific vice-president of its automotive and transportation practice.
[TRANSIT: Wow, if Singaporeans are so dissatisfied with their public transport system (often lauded as one of the world’s best) then what hope is there for Malaysia? Actually, the truth is that these surveys & rankings are literally a “dime a dozen” and Singaporeans probably get one of the best public transport experiences in the world.
So why aren’t they satisfied? It probably has more to do with the service experience (public transport is busy, Singaporeans are busy, etc) and having to change buses & trains regularly. Singapore will probably see improved satisfaction with the completion of the City Circle MRT line as well as the Downtown Line and future planned expansions and extensions. There are also plans to expand bus lanes and improve bus service in the Republic, as well as possible expansion of the “LRT” people-mover system.
Oh and in case you are wondering, Kuala Lumpur with 61 points ranked 14th of the cities surveyed, and 3rd among Asian cities.]
9. Article: Higher chance for RTS link to Kempas (The Star, 17 May 2011) – Iskandar-Johor’s Rapid Transit System (RTS) will most likely use Kempas Sentral (a newly planned development around an upgraded Kempas railway station) as the main hub, rather than JB Sentral because there is more space for a larger railway yard. As for the link between JB & Singapore, it appears that the future Singapore Thompson Line will “face Johor” but the actual link is not clear.Is
Transit Malaysia 
8 replies on “Updates #86”
Singapore seems to love to complain. Anyway, their public transport have plenty of problems seems in many countries. This issue has some impact in the recent general election in May 7.
1) Peak hour over crowding. Eg: Long queues for trains, you need to wait for a few trains before you can board one. Instead of adding trips, SMRT hired some pushers(similiar to Japan) to compress more humans into trains.
2) Buses always delayed due to traffic.
3) Singaporeans have no choice but to take public transport. Driving is so expensive. Car tax shoots to the roof. Then comes the COE, ERP and many hidden costs. Over the years, the Govt adeed more and more ERP gantries but little has been done to add capacity of buses and trains.
4) Huge influx of foreign workers make things worse.
@Wrongdoings_RapidKL
Interesting points. If Singaporeans have no choice but to use public transport (as you said in point #3) then where is the traffic that you mentioned in point #2 coming from? Obviously some people are driving and could choose alternatives like carpooling or park & ride.
As for #4, what does the presence of foreign workers in Singapore have to do with the rate of satisfaction for public transport users?
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
@ Moaz
We need to open our eyes wider. Issues are always seem to related.
Traffic does not mean vehicles on the road alone. It also means crowd on public transport. Longer queues, longer stationary times for boarding and alighting. The road may look congestion free. Is it because people stay at home or is it because they use public transport?
More foreign workers, more traffic, more crowd.
@Wrongdoings_rapidKL
We also need to be more specific with your explanations. Wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea.
1. Congestion in Singapore exists because demand is always going to be higher than supply (whether for public or private transport).
2. Singapore does have to invest in the MRT, expanded bus system, alternative transport, carpooling, and other solutions to find ways to reduce the number of Single Occupant Vehicles – but there will be a point where there is a continued plateau – meaning that small improvements will no longer make a big difference and massive change is needed.
By the way, it is our view that Singapore reached that plateau in public transport supply back in 2008 before the recession. Demand for public transport would then have dropped (as a result of the recession) and slowly increased over the past 2-3 years.
At least Singapore has this: http://www.publictransport.sg/publish/ptp/en.html – the power of information.
3. Foreign workers are building Singapore’s economy. The fact that they are foreign is not relevant to public transport. Of course it is possible that their presence may increase frustrations that Singaporeans have with their economy but to the public transport system they are just people paying for their trips.
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
@Wrongdoings_rapidkl,
Don’t let us caught you parking your car few steps away from the school gate and you still have to put up a big umbrella under the big hot scorching sun of Malaysia for your child. Don’t let us caught you still put up a big umbrella for you child under the pouring heavy torrential rain of Malaysia. Don’t let us caught you and your other family members including your OLD PARENTS disembark right in front of restaurant/hotel or shopping centre/mall entrance. Don’t let us caught you picking them up right in front of any premises entrance too. Prove to us that you are not lazy by walking 20-30 minutes under the hot scorching sun of Malaysia to any lrt/monorel/ktm komuter/bus station/stop without any umbrella. Prove to us that you are not lazy by letting your children walking alone and passby dangerous or risky ghetto without worry them getting kidnapped when he/she is walking towards to any destination especially towards any public transport station. Prove to us that you are not lazy by letting your weak and old parents walking tonnes of roads without worry that they might fall down or getting knock down by any venicles. Then you can claim that you are not lazy and the rest of the Malaysians are lazy. Dumb-a-ss!!!
It has been proven that Jeffrey is a rotten old man. He should mind his own business instead of indulging in his habit of name calling.
He should stop telling wrongdoings_rapidkl what he/she should do or what he/she should not do.
@Wrongdoings_rapidkl
You said that you are not lazy and the rest of Malaysians are lazy mah, than you must prove it with concrete evidence lah!!! You cannot just say it without evidence. About my claims about government cronys and corruptions/graft had been widely proven/recognised already until the government had to make tv ad about it. Besides, you will be surprised about my age which I will not reveal for the moment.
Let’s sit down and have some laughs