PETALING JAYA, Nov 3 — The KTM Komuter fare hike has sparked public outcry and discontentment among public transport users.

Executive Farhana Sofia Yusof Shah, 28, said the price hike would definitely affect her strained finances.

She said she had to be more frugal as she did not want to fork out more money for transportation.

“I rely on trains and buses. With the toll hikes and the rising cost of living,  I cannot afford another setback,” she said at KL Sentral yesterday.

She felt it was not a good time to increase the fare and it should be done gradually.

“The government should have increased the fares a long time ago because now the price of everything has gone up, and of course it will affect the lower income group,” she said.

Farhana said in order to further enhance and sustain its service, KTM Komuter needs to improve the frequency of the trains.

“The frequency of trains need to be improved to 15 minutes at least, compared to 45 minutes now,” she said.

For Kokilavani, 30, who is an administrator, said the hike would be challenging especially for those who were recently employed and people who just moved to the city.

“These people rely heavily on public transportation. A four sen increase may seem petty but it’s actually an uphill task to live in the city with the Goods and Services Tax and the rising cost of living,” she said.

Student Mohd Syukri Ahmad, 24, said the train service in the country should strive to be on par with the highly-efficient Japanese rail system.

“I understand the hike was necessary for maintenance cost, but I hope they improve on service level and enable the KTM Komuter to be comparable to global city standards,” he said.

For Saif Syed Irfan, 19, a student who is a daily commuter, said the fare hike was worrying as he depended on the transport to go everywhere.

“The state of our economy now is bad, I was hoping the increment was not too high,” he said.