Monday September 15, 2008
By BAVANI M(The Star)
THE Federal Government’s plan to build extensions to the LRT lines to resolve some of the Klang Valley’s transportation woes seems to lack a holistic approach and some NGOs see it as a narrow-minded way to tackle a perennial problem.
THE Federal Government’s plan to build extensions to the LRT lines to resolve some of the Klang Valley’s transportation woes seems to lack a holistic approach and some NGOs see it as a narrow-minded way to tackle a perennial problem.
Moaz: There is no point in building great lines when there is no connectivity. ASK any public transport advocate about the state of the urban public transport system and they would say thay the services are not reliable, infrequent, not connected and not comprehensive enough to meet the needs of the passengers.
While the government’s efforts to provide a solution by constructing a new 42km Kota Damansara-Cheras LRT line as well as extensions to the Kelana Jaya and Ampang LRT lines, including measures to purchase more trains and buses, may be seen as a good idea in principle, many public transport activists see it as overlooking the big picture.
Newly established public transport activist group Transit (the Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit – Klang Valley) as well as consumer groups like Fomca and BEAT (the Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport) believe that the cost to build the new extensions is simply too high and the benefits too low to justify the extensions.
More may not be good
The proposed LRT extensions to areas like Kota Damansara, Cheras, USJ and Subang may seem like a move in the right direction but experts believe that by investing highly on LRT lines, compromises have to made such as sacrificing connectivity and comprehensiveness.
“There is no point in building great lines when there is no connectivity. People want to live near these lines and other aspects such as the parking problems must be taken into account,’’ Transit adviser Moaz Yusof Ahmad said.
Moaz said with the new Kelana Jaya lines, it was expected that passenger capacity would increase from 160,000 passengers to 350,000 passengers daily. However, he said the concessionaires should give priority to moving passengers during peak hours instead.
According to Moaz the current maximum capacity per direction per hour at peak hours (8am-9am, 7pm-8pm) is 9,000 passengers per direction per hour.
“When you build trains to take in a maximum capacity of 20,000 per direction per hour, you are going to have problems in the future when there is no room for future extensions,’’ Moaz said, adding that with new lines, it was inevitable that more developments would spring up along the lines, thereby increasing capacity as well.
The bus poser
Ironically, the Federal Government only mentioned the extensions of LRT lines as a solution. There was a brief mention to improve KTM services but absolutely nothing on Rapid KL bus services.
Transit believes that highways and expressways can and should be used to support an integrated mass transit system, which includes all modes of transport including buses, high-speed trains, monorails and light rail transits to prevent congestion.
Spokesperson Muhammad Zulkarnain Hamzah said 30 buses would be more than capable of relieving the maximum amount of freeflow traffic that the RM1.2bil Ampang-KL Elevated Highway (AKLEH) could sustain at any one time.
“With a combined Park-n-Ride capacity of 10,000 parking bays at the Shah Alam and Bukit Jalil Stadiums, this could make all the Kesas, NKVE and Elite expressways empty from private vehicles.
“Since we have an excellent network of limited access free-flow expressways around the Klang Valley, we can consider these as Expressway Rapid Transit (ERT) tracks with ERT buses as trains.
“Bus stations can be built on top of these tracks at identified strategic transit points with a high suburban population and bus terminals for suburban feeder bus services together with depots and car parks can be build inside the suburban area and next to the ERT points so that transit time can be cut short,’’ Muhammad Zulkarnain said.
Long wait: Creating more bus lanes and enforcing them strictly could help cut down queues like these. Zulkarnain added that three strategic KL gateway points for ERT buses can be created at KL Sentral/Mid Valley, Imbi and Sentul Timur with dedicated bus ramps to Jalan Travers –Jalan Duta (heading to NKVE and NPE), KL-Putrajaya, and DUKE expressways respectively.
These gateway points should be conveniently linked to the Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT Lines, KL Monorail, and high frequency busway rapid transit with limited routes and dedicated lanes.
“The Dang Wangi LRT Station can be the main gateway point that caters to ERT from Ampang as it sits strategically at the west end point of AKLEH,’’ he explained.
To cater to demand during rush hour, express bus operators should be allowed to bid for periodical contracts to serve as ERT buses.
Dedicated bus lanes
In order to speed up services during peak hours, Transit believes that dedicated bus lanes are the only way out of the jam.
Moaz said the system had worked tremendously well in cities like Bogota in Colombia and Jakarta in Indonesia. He said it has been reported that it is the most efficient and cost effective public transportation system in the world and adopted in some 80 countries.
“Congestion is a big problem during peak periods and buying new buses will not solve the problem,’’ Moaz said.
Even the SMURT-KL Study done in 1997 revealed that dedicated bus lanes could reduce travel time by more than 40% on a congested road.
And this, according to Transit experts, is something that can easily be implemented immediately as part of the short-term solutions to counter congestion.
One agency to rule them all
Transit believes that there should be one Urban Transport Authority to take over all mass transit systems in the Klang Valley.
Currently, mass transit support like enforcement, licensing, route rationalisation, fare system, feedback management, at both the local and federal level are under the complicated and overlapping jurisdictions of some 11 different agencies and three ministries.
What is needed is one autonomous agency that is not politically or financially motivated and monitored by the civil service, Fomca, and the ACA to ensure transparency and accountability.
The Federal Government initiated the Rapid Transit Study called SMURT-KL over 10 years ago which suggested the need for a local transport authority called the Klang Valley Urban Transport Authority (Kuta) - but sadly nothing came out of this endeavour.
“A Transport Authority could monitor all the bus routes in the Klang Valley. Routes should be revised to the hub and spoke system proposed by Rapid KL. Areas would each have one main expressway route and separate feeder buses.
“Each company would tender an application to the authority to operate the routes on three to five-year contracts,’’ Moaz explained.
The successful operator would get one profitable expressway route plus other less profitable routes within an area.
Moaz explained that the authority would collect all fares and pay the operator according to the contracted period.
“The operator must provide services during the contractual period. If the operator is found to be problematic, then the authority can terminate the service and tender for the services of another operator.’’
“This way, the public’s and the authority’s interests are protected,’’ he stressed.
With such a system in place and the existence of such an authority, operators would be accountable and responsible for their own routes. In fact, this arrangement has worked quite well in cities like Vancouver, Berlin and Singapore.
Where do we begin
While it is not easy to solve the transportation problem in the Klang Valley, it certainly is not impossible. But, for this to work, there is a pressing need for an inclusive Master Plan for the Klang Valley.
And that is only possible once the powers that be realise that mass transit is not just seen as a means of travel for the poor but for everyone.
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