I believe public transport will help elevate more secondary areas into ‘acceptable’ and in future to be ‘desirable’ locations. This is so important for some of us who could not afford expensive properties and yet wants a home sweet home. We should not only have those few loved areas all the time. This is Klang Valley after all, the most prominent property market for Malaysia with huge growth potential.
In an article in TheStar recently, some LRT commuters are complaining about the inability to board a train due to overcrowding on peak hours and high traffic areas such as Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) station. It was said that some had to wait for a few hours before they could board the train. The overcrowding was so bad that these commuters had to queue behind the ticket barriers as there were no space to go in. This has happened due to the increased number of riders with the completion of the Kelana Jaya and Sri Petaling LRT line extension projects.
Some reasons were given by the authorities and even assuming these reasons were valid such as rain or peak hours but I think it’s important for the situation to continue to improve. If the number of trains are not enough to cater to the rising number of passengers, get more. If the frequency is insufficient, increase them. Improve the maintenance so much that we are indeed world class. Our neighbour should be a good example even if recently there has been more issues.
As per Prasarana Group Communications and Strategic Marketing head Lim Jin Aun, with these new LRT stations, Prasarana will also be introducing new trains in stages, especially for demand during peak hours. He said, “For the Sri Petaling and Ampang Lines, we have ordered 20 six-car trains for the line extension and 30 six-car trains to replace the existing fleet. It will be fully deployed in stages by end of 2016. With the 23 new stations, total ridership increased by an additional 23,000 per day.
I love that the LRTs would in a few months time be completed by the first phase of MRT Line 1. I also want to trust that Prasarana is already doing a lot of new things to make it work. I told my wife two weeks ago that we should take the LRT to KL city centre during one of the weekends. She was worried about carrying the stroller etc. I told her, we should still strive to make it work, somehow. We shall see.
written on 18 July 2016
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