With more people using public transport, Land Public Transport Commission plans to implement a tram service in Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Kajang and Bangi.
KUALA LUMPUR: The average daily ridership of rail and bus in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley recorded an uptrend last year with an increase of 3.7% to 1,206,111 compared with 1,162,717 throughout 2016.
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said it showed the effectiveness of the government’s effort to improve the national public transportation system.
“We are proud to announce the positive achievement and we can see all the transportation projects and bus services, as well as our survey indicates we are on the right track,” he told reporters after presenting SPAD’s Annual Review 2017 Report, here today.
The eight-page report entitled “Touching Lives Connecting Communities” reviews the performance of all public transport services in the country.
In the report, urban rail recorded a 7.5% increase in the average daily ridership year-on-year, contributed mainly by the opening of the 51km-stretch Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Sungai Buloh-Kajang line on July 17 last year.
The commission also noted that the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Kelana Jaya line showed an increase of 7% in its daily ridership from 254,854 in 2016 to 272,684 last year.
However, Azharuddin said several types of public transport suffered a dip in ridership this year due to upgrading works, including the KTM Komuter service which saw a decline of 14.5% following the Klang Valley Double Track (KVDT) rehabilitation project, that impacted the train’s frequency.
The monorail also hit a downtrend in 2017 with a reduction of 23.5% due to removal of the five four-car monorail train sets.
Efficient and cost-effective
Despite all these, he said their independent Customer Satisfaction Index survey indicated that 90% of respondents were satisfied with the urban public transport last year, an increase of 6% from the previous year.
“More and more commuters think that public transport offers them an efficient and cost-effective way of moving around,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the intercity rail service, KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS) also showed an increase of 14.2% in its average daily ridership, that is from 17,367 in 2016 to 19,835 last year.
Azharuddin said, at present, the ETS service is a popular mode for intercity transport and RM1.1 billion has been allocated to purchase 19 new ETS trains by the end of next year.
For the bus services, the GoKL Bus which provides free rides in the capital saw total ridership increase by a significant 26.6% from 51,812 in 2016 to 63,218 last year.
The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Sunway also saw an increase of 34.6% in its daily ridership from 5,382 in 2016 to 7,244 last year.
On taxi services, Azharuddin said 1,200 eligible taxi drivers received individual taxi permits and a total of 581 drivers received a government grant of RM5,000 to buy their own new cars.
Meantime, SPAD is also waiting for the Road Transport Department to make amendments to the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333) this year so that the commission could proceed to fully regulate the e-hailing sector, including operators, drivers and vehicles, Azharuddin said.
In moving forward, he said the commission would launch the journey planner in the fourth quarter of this year and implement the integrated ticketing system by 2019 to attract more ridership by ensuring seamless transit.
“We are also looking into the framework of the National Rail Centre of Excellence to be set up to support the development of a skilled workforce for the rail industry,” he said, adding that SPAD would initiate a Request For Proposal exercise for bids to implement a tram service system in Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Kajang and Bangi this year.
The views expressed in the contents are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of FMT.
Sumber SPAD: Public transport daily ridership on the rise