Furthering public transport — Hafidz Baharom

SEPTEMBER 25 — Public transport has already been an issue in Malaysia due to our late entry into the sector. Up until the mid-1990s, projects to make it easier for Malaysians to get around was very much abandoned except for the existence of buses. Rail was thoroughly left for dead up until 1995 onwards where the Putra Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Star(LRT) was introduced.

Now, public transport is still fractured. For the urban areas, the MyRapid company under Prasarana Malaysia is taking the initiative through centralising buses and the mass transit systems specifically in Kuala Lumpur and there Greater Klang Valley area.

However, there is little being done to link the state capitols and even ensuring better access to rural areas.

At the same time, the mass transit systems are groaning to keep up the pace with the population boom in the urban areas. As such, the roads have been clogged up during rush hour and even more highways are being announced.

But to cope with this issue beginning with the 2010s, more rail projects were announced. The LRT extension projects which will link up the areas of Subang Jaya and even Putra Heights are due to be ready by next year.

Similarly, the Klang Valley Mass Rail Transit (KVMRT) Line 1 will link Sungai Buloh to Kajang, which up to now has only been partially serviced by the KTM Komuter. These new developments will allow more people to reset their thoughts better towards urbanisation by once again thinking of the car as a luxury rather than an amenity.

But it is also dependent on the ability to also make buses both punctual and feasible for transport from home to the stations involved above. In fact, buses need to be separated and not be hindered by traffic congestion, which is why the bus rapid transit (BRT) systems were announced, starting with linking Sunway to Kuala Lumpur.

However, the original master plan was actually to create a BRT on the Federal Highway itself, thus allowing areas left out of the LRT and KVMRT projects unhindered access into the city. I would like to know why this has yet to become a reality or even begin construction.

Just recently though, the third LRT line has been announced with a completion date set in 2020 to link Bandar Utama to Johan Setia. It will involved three districts being Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya and even Klang to the tune of RM9 billion. These three districts make up the bulk of the close to 6 million residents in the state of Selangor.

At the same time, the RapidKL company has announced the introduction of double decker buses being introduced in Kajang. Similarly, the state of Selangor is also introducing their own shuttle buses linked with Prasarana to allow intercity travel for Shah Alam, Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya.

There was also an announcement from the Petaling Jaya district to also provide the same service which will allow students to get to their respective schools using a similar service. Again, this is a good thing.

I am also hopeful that such a brilliant plan will be implemented also in Shah Alam and Subang Jaya, not just linking schools but also tertiary education centres. In Subang Jaya, you have Segi, Monash, Sunway, INTI and even Taylor’s to link up.

In Shah Alam, you have two UiTM campuses, MSU, PTPL, Unisel and even KDU’s new campus in Glenmarie. If the state could consider having this service for the students and link these up to the rail stations, then the public transport circle will be more or less complete.

But from a business and cost aspect, these will not be cheap to implement, especially rail projects. And while politicians bicker about the cost of such projects, there are a few points that must be raised from an economic standpoint.

Firstly, we have no idea what the costs were in the 1990s to start off the LRT and Star networks during Tu Mahathir’s time in office. These lines are now under Prasarana. The building of the Monorail line cost RM1.18 billion in 2003 for 8.6km.

The KVMRT is estimated to cost RM36 billion for 51km initially announced in 2006. And just this month, the third LRT line will cost RM9 billion for 36km.

Just to clarify, it is RM9 billion and not RM11 billion as one rather awkward news story reported.

But the bottom line for these projects is this; it will reduce Malaysian household debt indirectly.

With better public transport and proper accessibility, Malaysians will be able to reduce spending and credit through cars, maintenance, tolls and even petrol. At the same time, it will also subsequently reduce traffic, indirectly raise productivity of Malaysians in the city centre through less travel time to and from work.

It is a good thing.

Secondly, on the development side, using project delivery partners (PDPs) as Prasarana has done for the LRT projects puts the management for construction purposes centralised on one party. It also ensures fairer distribution of work within the construction sector. As we are now seeing in KVMRT, nobody monopolises on a large portion of the billion involved.

At the same time, we all saw MRT Corp’s former chief Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid take full responsibility for the untoward incident that occurred involving the loss of life in the construction of this massive undertaking.

This is the same responsibility that should be borne by all companies awarded PDP contracts whether it is incidents of neglecting contractors causing delays or even related issues in the form of floods, toppling rods and even the bizarre events of even suicides at construction sites.

Yet again, it is a good thing.

But the public demands and requires more on the business end. After all, these are tax ringgits collected from everyone, now that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is in force, and the demands are not unwarranted.

In this sense, Prasarana has the duty of explaining how they award such contracts, and what measurements were considered. It can do a much better job explaining how these contracts were awarded to counter the accusations of cronyism and corruption than any company involved, even those who do not win the tender.

But more so, it will show that the government is willing to rationalise criticism and advocate more transparent due process which will be beneficial for everyone from government to politicians to even business owners.

This notion of just retracting into one’s shell and remaining mum will only breed cynicism and more cynicism and critical misinformation in the media of the government, Prasarana and all companies involved in what is perceived to be a rigged tender awarding system.

In this sense, Prasarana must step up.

Otherwise, all the good they are doing in actually pushing through a national agenda to make lives easier for Malaysians through a fully linked public transport transformation plan will all be for negated and tainted by these allegations.

To paraphrase Martha Stewart yet again, this should be looked at as a good thing.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.