Updates #89

Updates #89

1. Article: Strain of Waiting (NST, 10 June 2011) – Complaints about the Penang Hill Railway including about a lack of information on the website, www.penanghill.gov.my. Suggestions for improvement include online ticket sales.

2. Article: ‘Scrap Batu Tiga and Sg Rasau toll’(NST 12 June 2011) – The government has been urged to scrap tolls on the Federal Highway as the cost of travel to KL from Shah Alam or Klang is too much.

[TRANSIT: Sorry but we cannot agree as the cost of travel along the Federal Highway should be used to discourage people from driving, rather than encourage additional driving – which is what a toll reduction would do. Better public transport is needed and it needs to be a viable alternative to driving.]

3. Hotline Story: Waiting for buses a daily headache (Malay Mail, 7 June 2011) – V. Melathi of Kajang is frustrated with RapidKL’s U40 bus service which she describes as infrequent and unpredictable.

4. Hotline Story: Taken for a ride (Malay Mail, 2 June 2011) – Rina Wan Ebrahim of KL complains about the new fees for KTM’s Electric Train Service, which divides trains into Platinum, Gold and Silver classes based factors like speed/Number of stops and time of service.

[TRANSIT: We already expressed our concern back in May that the new service divided by “class” would be confusing for customers – and we were not surprised to see that this is happening.]

5. Article: Express bus luggage thief and partner bagged (The Star, 11 June 2011) – Tamil Neesan reported that police in Barcelona, Spain discovered a pair of thieves who stole items from passenger luggage on express buses. Their method was to have one member hide in a luggage which was placed into the luggage bay.

[TRANSIT: Let’s hope that something like this does not get imported into Malaysia. Otherwise, we will have to open all luggage (or just give a swift kick to each unusually bag).]

6. Article: Jailed for showing porn to woman (NST, 11 June 2011) – An express bus driver was convicted for sexually harassing a female passenger.

7. Letter: Improvements needed (Malay Mail, 7 June 2011) – 2 comments about the quality of KTM Komuter rail services.

8. Letter: It’s all in the attitude (Malay Mail, 10 June 2011) – David comments about the quality of KTM Komuter rail customer service which helped him recover his lost bag.