The New Opening Date for the Renovated Puduraya Bus Station

Well the new opening of the renovated Puduraya bus station is postponed to April 16 due to some more works need to be carried out by the contractors.


I am eager to know the effect of the renovation on the passengers comfort and safety besides the effect of the bus station on traffic congestion of the surrounding area.

Unless the bus parking bays are increased, buses will park outside the bus station and causing severe traffic congestion.

The station was closed in April 2010 for RM52 Million upgrading works, but the works were delayed due to additional work on the base of the building.


The Cabinet has directed both Integrated Transportation Terminal-Bandar Tasik Selatan (ITT-BTS) and Puduraya to be operational on March 1.

Related entry about Puduraya Bus Terminal HERE.

Rapidpass Flexi

A New Eight Couches of the Putra LRT.

Malaysia really needs to have an integrated transportation system in order to provide efficient services to users. Congratulation to RapidKL for its initiative to introduce a new ticketing system namely Rapidpass Flexi. The new ticketing system was introduced on 1st June 2010.

In order to use the system one needs to have a Touch and Go card. The Touch and Go cards are available at most of the LRT stations. Rapidpass Flexi can be loaded to the Touch and Go card. Rapidpass Flexi can be used specifically for RapidKL buses, LRT as well as monorail. Users can also purchase an integrated Rapidpass which can be used for all three mode of transport (RapidKL buses, LRT and Monorail). Users can purchase the Rapidpass Flexi based on number of days such as one, three, seven, 15 or 30 days. The rapidpass can be purchased from customer service counters at LRT stations. For more information, please refer to this web site http://www.rapidkl.com.my/.

Personally, I really like the ticketing system because of its convenience to the users. However, RapidKL still needs to improve the reliability and timing of their bus services in order to attract more users to use the services.

Where is the Taxi Station?

The following picture is used to be the taxi station in Kuching. Most of the taxi drivers are waiting anxiously for their customers. Their customers, no matter local or tourists, know where to find them.



Another view of the historical taxi station in Kuching.




Another view of the historical taxi station in Kuching.




The following picture is what the place looks like now. The taxi station had made ways for the new development surrounding the area. I am not sure where all of the taxis are located since there is not even a single information indicating their temporary place. What about tourists looking for taxi service? The tourists may have to use "kereta sewa", an alternative to taxi service or they have to use the Kuching Bus service.

The relevant authority should have provide some kind of notice near the vicinity to inform the public about the new location of the taxi station. Also, the relevant authority should have provide a better taxi station.

Another Move to Ensure Passengers Safety

As usual during festive season, the demand for public transport  is very high. Thus, the Road Transport Department are undergoing stringent check on all express buses before giving them permit to transport passengers. Tyres, brakes and lighting system of the buses are fully checked to ensure passengers safety. The checked are carried out at depots and terminals statewide to avoid inconvenience to the passengers. Previous years, checked were carried out at roadblocks throughout the countries. Checked through roadblock will inconvenient the passengers since the passengers will be stranded in case that the buses did not fully conform to the Road Transport Department specification.

Extension of LRT Stations

Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd, is proposing to construct an extension of the Kelana Jaya and Ampang Light Rail Transit (LRT) line. According to the report, the RM7 billion project includes 13 additional stations each for the Kelana Jaya and Ampang line, including an interchange station at Putra Heights. The Kelana Jaya extension comprises of a 17-km track whereas the Ampang Line extension comprises of 17.7-km track. The extension projects are expected to be completed in 2012.

Currently, the documents and proposed plans related to the project are available for public review at Petaling Jaya City Council, Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ), City Hall headquarters, Shah Alam City Council and Department of Railway at Menara Dayabumi. The documents can be reviewed from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. The public inspection ends on Dec 14.

 

However, the developers of the extensions projects should consider the following areas of concerned:

 

1. 
   
   The most important aspect is to ensure the choice of train system that can be easily maintained and easily upgraded in the future. For example, due to popular demand, the capacity of each train need to be increased by adding additional coach to the train and make sure that the procured train system allows such an extension. As an alternative, the number of trains need to be increased in the future (to increase train frequency) to meet the travel demand. Make sure that the cost of adding additional train in the future are included in the procurement cost. 
2. 
   
   For the nation, there should be a Transport Masterplan to cater for future developments of all public transport facilities. For the rail transit system, there should be a masterplan which will indicate which lines that need to be constructed in the future. For example, currently there are no such lines as circumferential lines which could be used for users travelling along the outskirt of the city center. Also, there is no such line as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to transport high passenger volume at a very high speed for certain distances. Additionally, there should be other LRT lines to reduce the loading on the existing LRT lines to ensure that the level of service of the facilities is within reasonable limit during peak periods.
3. 
   
   Several stations should be constructed at properly located growth area in the future in order to save future construction costs. The proposed future developments will be in popular demand as the results of the availability of the LRT station in the vicinity of the development. The construction of the stations, even though it will not be operational sometimes in the future, will ensure proper land used and transportation planning being carried out along the LRT line. Furthermore, the cost of constructing the stations in the future will be prohibitive and also will affect the operation of the existing line.
4. 
   
   Ensure proper allocation of Park-and-Ride facilities at the LRT stations. In order to attract more users using the LRT facilities, users must be able to easily find available parking places. The management of the park-and-ride facilities must provide a very high security services at the parking places. Private vehicle users will be readily switched their mode of transport to the LRT based transport given that their level of comfort and security are being addressed properly.
5. 
   
   Proper traffic impact assessment (TIA) needs to be carried out at each of the park-and-ride facilities in order to reduce congestion around the area. Congestion occurs if the number of available parking facilities is limited causing vehicles to be parked surrounding the vicinity of the park-and ride facilities which can cause nuisance to the community.
6. 
   
   Feeder bus and taxi services at the park-and-ride facilities should be provided at appropriate capacity and frequency. This will further attract users to use the LRT services. If the feeder system is very poor than the overall level of service of the LRT system will be compromised. Thus, planning of the train frequencies should be synchronized with the feeder bus services frequency to provide a smooth free travel from one location to the other.
7. 
   
   Social and environmental impact of the project should be carried out. Sensitive residential areas need to be screened using properly designed sound barriers.
8. 
   
   Congestion level in term of number of passengers in a train at any particular time and number of passengers queuing at train stations at a particular time need to be taken into consideration. The management of the LRT system should be able to deploy additional train in case that the level of service of the facilities dropped at certain level of service. In order for this to happen, the operators must have enough number of train available during peak hours.
9. 
   
   With the extensions of the LRT line, more passengers will use the line for long distance travel. The extreme case will be that most users will use the train to travel from one end of the line to the other end of the line. Or most users will use the LRT to travel from the Suburb to the city center thus depriving other users along the line of their place (the users have to wait longer for available place) in the train. Thus, for LRT to operate properly, the distance covered for each line should not be too long. In order to overcome this issues, additional line should be constructed to accommodate the various users need. Also, the Government should consider constructing a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) for the purpose of carrying large number of passengers at a very high speed for long distance travel. The MRT line only allows passenger to disembark at certain interchange stations along the line.

I am sure that any readers interested in this topic will have some other ideas or concerns regarding the LRT services. I really appreciate and very thankful if you could provide your inputs by commenting on this post.

Wi-Fi to Attract Public Transport Riders

Image via Wikipedia

In order to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and thus reducing the level of congestion, public transport need to be more attractive to the people. One way of doing this is by installing free Wi-Fi wireless internet connection on board of trains and buses.

The Scottish Government through Transport Scotland is already developing a business case for wireless provision on Scot Rail services and later will include bus services to promote the level of usage of the public tranport services. Read HERE for more news about the initiative.

In Malaysia, similar initiative had been proposed by the Penang Rapid, local bus operator, by installing free Wi-Fi internet in their buses. However, I am not sure about the current status of the project, Not sure whether the buses has been installed with Wi-Fi or not and if the buses had been installed with free Wi-Fi, it would be interesting to know about the users perception of the services.