Check out RapidKL’s new buses in action (Update #1)

Update: @TWK90 found another place to host the bus photos. Check out the links below!

TRANSIT recently took note of a set of photos of new RapidKL buses in action, courtesy of @TWK90, a regular on many Malaysian public transport-related forums who has provided us with many excellent pictures of buses, trains, signage, stations, etc.

These pictures show a RapidKL 8m long bus, at Taman Bahagia LRT station.

Strangely enough, the bus is signed for Route T625 on the front destination sign, but Route T624 on the side and rear signs! Route T624 actually services Kelana Jaya LRT station.

As you can see from the photos below, the bus is a flat-floor bus, fully accessible with a ramp at the back door. The bus is assembled by SKSBUS, which is one of Malaysia’s well-known bus body assemblers, and is apparently built on a HINO chassis.

• http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9558/dsc03233o.jpg
• http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5092/dsc03236b.jpg
• http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3126/dsc03237u.jpg
• http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9031/dsc03238lc.jpg
• http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/3803/dsc03244o.jpg
• http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/300/dsc03234pj.jpg

We at TRANSIT look forward to seeing more of these accessible buses for RapidKL’s local services. In addition, we want to see some expansion of local bus routes – especially routes that actually enter certain housing estates.

RapidKL claims to serve 980 housing areas around the Klang Valley but this service is poor and in many cases, housing areas lost their Tempatan local services in 2008 as part of RapidKL’s ill-conceived rationalization of bus services.

It is time for a renewal.