The Malaysian Public Transport System

I should be studying, but what the heck. Anyways, i originally wanted to blog about arsenal's amazing week capped off with the win against liverpool today, but then reading the star online about malaysian public transport system made my mind turn to other things instead. Yes and turn away from studying mortality rates.

But anyways, i very very seldom put my country down, but our transport system, to put it very gently, needs some work. Some serious work. So much so that i even dare say that the government should consider nationalising the whole freaking system.

Basically, what should be done (in my opinion) is pretty expensive at the start, but in the long run should prove worthwhile IF THEY STICK WITH IT AND DO NOT LEPAK HALFWAY LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO!

Anyways if i was a rich guy with a few billion to spare (hint goverment with money from fuel increases) , this is what I'd do:

Firstly, unite the entire transport system under one company. These will prevent idiots from petty squabbling about profit margins on stupid issues like 5 or 10 sen profit from touch and go cards.

One company for the trains and LRT, and another one for buses.

Make (ie force, with the threat of RM5 million fines with failure to comply) the touch and go card be available to use on every public transport system in the capital (and of course PJ, subang, damansara or whatever parts of selangor. Heck just chuck the whole selangor in.). But then if everything was united under one company we wont need to force people right?

Make the KTM trains run more frequently. Especially during peak hours. There must be trains passing a station every 3 minutes during peak hours, not a 15 minute wait like it is at the moment.

The LRTs are working fine, as long as they sort out their touch and go card issue it'll be all cool.

And now the buses. The buses. Those damned buses.

Under the unified system, buses are made sure to run on schedule (ie not waiting at a crowded kota raya road for the bus to fill up first before moving). Every 5-8 minutes the bus should pass its designated bus stop. Inspectors must go round making sure bus drivers stick to the schedule (actually all they need is to periodically check the stop points). And fine the drivers if they stop and lepak for a limau ais at the nearby gerai.

Routes are to be set out clearly. And routes must not be too far and too long. Each bus stop must have a proper map of the buses stopping at the bus stop, and where they are going, how long are they expected to take.

Standardize the fares. It should be a flat rate for any bus trip. Point A to point B or point A to point C should be charged at the same rate. This helps streamline the fares and the use of the touch and go card. It should be the same for the LRTs and KTM too.

Divide up the capital into zones. Zone one should be the centre and most busy parts of KL, zone 2,3,4,...progressing outward from there. Flat rate within zones, and of course from zone 2 to zone one should cost more than within zone 1.

Have things like day travelcards, or monthly passes, for bus only, or for bus and train. This works in such a way in the case of a day bus pass, that the commuter pays a flat rate say, RM4, and can use as much of the bus as he wants on that day.

And what about funding? How does the government keep this up?

I suggest the use of congestion charging. Follow singapore or London's example. Charge people a rate of RM5(something like that lah) a day, when they enter into the capital. Then u can abolish the tolls within KL already. Use cameras, whatever needed to enforce it. But of course for this to work the public transport system needs to be working properly. Else there'll be riots. And of course, exempt commercial vehicles like lorrys and other goods transporting services from it. We don't want to completely hinder commerce now, don't we?

Another controversial move is to tax every 2nd/3rd car that a household has. Increase the road tax by another 100% or something on the extra car that the household has. Discourage people from buying so many cars (at this point i know if i ever run for PM i'll be shot dead at my campaining rounds). But then again this is a trade off in national interest as i believe we wanna promote proton and perodua. Heck then tax only if its not proton or perodua. Wahaha i'm a genius. Again not a popular move. But it'll work i'm sure.

Make sure ONLY BUSES USE BUS LANES. Fine the offenders to bits. Set up cameras everywhere and more importantly, make sure they are working (ie not only empty cameras with no film or whatever inside).

And of course, simple economics, peak and off peak pricing. Encourage the use of the LRT and KTM during off peak hours. Especially to school kids. Give them half price discounts, student rates or whatever for them to travel on the LRT. And make it cheaper to travel during off peak hours on the LRT and KTM.

And make full use of the current feeder buses. Not when the putra bus drivers stop at the Terminal Gombak and cram into their little cubicle and smoke while passengers wait frustratedly for the bus driver to finish his ciggie and teh tarik before he decides to drive the bus. If only the feeder buses worked then the LRT will be fully utilised.

Encourage companies to promote car pooling. Or a company bus or something. Give them incentives to do so. But of course insurance companies insuring that particular company will cry foul in the event of a tragedy when all the worker perish in an accident. Pokai straight the insurance firm. (That an actuarist thought for you).

OK la i got to read mortality rates liao. Its not a perfect solution above but i'm betting that its better than the one we have now. Why doesn't the goverment just send people over to study how successful public transport systems work and learn from them? And if any dungu fella opposes the move (worker's unions, ministers, politicians) make sure they don't get a car to themselves and ask them to take public transport to work. That'll teach them to complain.

Kesian all those people who have to take public transport in Malaysia. Heck if we had the power to do something about it. IF. But then those in charge supposed to do their job la. So its their responsibility. Not ours. We complain in our blogs in far far away lands like london. And when we come back we still drive our papa's car. wahaha.

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed (a implicit way of knowing how many people actually read this blog... *grin* . If u see 0 comments u know la....)