KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 ― Though the use of public transportation among city dwellers is encouraging based on the volume of passengers, both local and foreign, seen daily at KTM Komuter, light rail transport (LRT), monorail and bus stations, the number of such commuters in Kuala Lumpur pales in comparison to those in cities like Tokyo and Singapore.
While 75 per cent of the Tokyo and Singapore populations rely on public transportation, only 20 per cent of our urban population uses public transportation.
This marked difference was acknowledged by Federal Territories Deputy Minister, Datuk Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan who said this was one of the factors contributing to traffic congestion in the capital city.
To this end, the Federal Territories, through Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is targeting 60 per cent of city folks to use public tranportation by year 2020.
A Bernama survey at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station ― the main transit point for all public transportation including buses and taxis ― found public transport commuters optimistic on the 60 per cent target set by the government.
Most felt that to meet the target, transit services should be improved for more efficiency and systematisation.
A civil servant, Lee Mei Li, 31, who takes the monorail daily to work said something should be done about trains taking passengers beyond their capacity limit and the way passengers queued up for this transport system.
"To achieve the desired target, the rail services must be improved by increasing the number of carriages as the current number is insufficient," she said, adding that it was now pointless to drive to work due to traffic congestion.
Another commuter, Syamimi Azman, 35 who takes the LRT to her work place at a shopping centre in Jalan Imbi said additional carriages were necessary to ensure comfortable rides.
"Passengers do not queue but are always forcing their way in, at times pushing aside women carrying babies or the elderly, in the train.
"The carriages are often packed to the brim and some passengers have to wait for two or three trains to pass before they can get into one," she said.
On the other hand, M. Shamine, 24, an intern at a government agency felt that rail service time-tables should be updated so that commuters could estimate their time of arrival for work or other destinations.
"Sometimes, the train arrival time is not as displayed on the information screen and passengers get stranded at the stations and are late for work and appointments," she said.
Housewife Rahmah Musa, 40, laments that ticket vending machines are often out of service and should be maintained regularly.
"If there are only two or three machines functioning during peak works, there will be a long line of impatient passengers, so add more vending machines, as commuters are increasing anyway," she said.
In addition, many raised that bus network and services too, must be improved in line with rail transit development as passengers relied on buses to take them to transfer points within the city.
A RapidKL bus commuter, Zakuan Abdul Razak, 26, said though there had been improvement in the frequency of bus services, the bus numbers and timetables were often misleading and forever changing, causing much inconvenience to commuters.
"I hope the management will rectify this and give passengers accurate information as the confusion is really frustrating and causes a lot of problems for passengers to get to their destination, said Zakuan who relies on the bus to travel from Kelana Jaya LRT to Bandar Utama daily.
Meanwhile, in line with the government's aim in encouraging more people to use public transportation in the city, Kereta Api Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) introduced a KTMB-MobTicket smart application last month to attract more people to use KTM Electronic Train Service.
KTM Intercity Marketing general manager, YM Hamdan Husori said the move was an option for passengers to buy tickets without having to queue.
"This is one of the initiatives taken for the convenience of our loyal customers travelling on all 34 inter-city trains.
"Passengers just need to purchase their tickets online to enjoy a comfortable ride," he said, adding that the KTMB-MobTicket application could only be downloaded on Android mobile phones.
A frequent KTM Intercity commuter, M. Dinesh Kumar, 26, said he was aware of the application but had not downloaded it yet.
"I often travel between Kuala Lumpur and Alor Star by train as it is time-saving and more convenient," he said. ― Bernama
