Public transport hits new peak

PETALING JAYA: Experts are reminding public transport operators here to be mindful of good maintenance as ridership in the Klang Valley hit yet another all-time high last month.

In the latest published data by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, 33,790,386 trips were made using the combination of LRT, MRT, monorail and buses (including the Sunway BRT) in August, an increase of 1.81% compared with July, which recorded 33,179,580 trips.

Ridership across all modes, whether from Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd and Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd, was up.

Elsewhere, bus ridership in Kuantan under the Rapid Kuantan branding was also up slightly, though ridership for Rapid Penang buses registered a slight decline.In a response to The Star, Prasarana credited its focus on ensuring the reliability of its rail and selected bus services, as measured by the universal metric called “mean kilometre between failures” (MKBF).

MKBF measures the mileage clocked by the fleet before any service disruption that lasts for more than five minutes happens.

“In 2023, Prasarana launched an initiative to monitor and track MKBF to enhance service reliability and performance. The MKBF initiative tracks the number of disruptions, allowing the relevant areas to be promptly identified and the measures required to address them.“The company’s aim is to meet its MKBF target of 1,000,000km by Q3 (third quarter) 2026, with the benefit passed on to the public in the form of constantly improving service reliability and consistency,” it said in a statement.

It added that in 2022, Kajang Line had 46 disruptions of more than five minutes. The number was reduced to 38 in 2023.

“As of July 2024, there were only 11 disruptions of more than five minutes,” it added on Malaysia’s maiden MRT line, which opened in July 2017.

The Kajang line is now very close to catching up with the Kelana Jaya line as the country’s most used urban rail line, with daily ridership of both lines hovering at around 300,000.

Elsewhere, the reopening of the Ampang line’s stretch between Bandaraya to Masjid Jamek after a year-long closure for repairs also helped the line to return to normalcy.

“With the reopening, Rapid Rail targeted an average daily ridership on the Ampang/Sri Petaling Line to reach 180,600 by the end of 2024, compared with the 155,364 daily ridership achieved in 2023 during the track and station closure. However, Rapid Rail managed to achieve and surpass the target in June,” it said.

The opening of the Putrajaya line to serve the corridor between Putrajaya and Damansara has also reported good numbers.

“There has been an encouraging trend since the full opening of Phase 2 in March 2023, with an average of 160,000 daily ridership recorded in July 2024,” said Prasarana.

Other developments that contributed to the increased ridership include the opening of new growth centres such as the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and Pavilion Damansara, both in Kuala Lumpur.“For example, the opening of TRX contributed a 10% rise to the ridership of the Kajang line and 13% to the Putrajaya line,” it said, adding that the impending full opening of the Merdeka 118 Precinct will also boost ridership.

Another tweak made by Prasarana is changing its station closure procedures, following an article in The Star on May 11 highlighting how many commuters were unable to catch the last train as some stations close as early as 45 minutes before the last train.

Looking at the larger issue at hand, it is clear that good maintenance becomes paramount as lack of diligence here can result in a highly unsatisfactory situation, such as the one seen now at the cargo-only line in Johor operated by KTM Bhds.

As far as passenger services are concerned, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in May that the government will focus on improving public transport facilities at monorail stations at a cost of RM50mil to repair or replace entry gates, elevators and toilets.

On top of that, additional surveillance cameras with smart features will be installed at several monorail stations.

Observers said much needs to be done for monorail stations in terms of amenities and security.

On Wednesday, a man was captured on video trespassing onto the monorail track at the Bukit Bintang monorail station, an act that was possible because the platform screen doors (PSDs) were still not yet installed at the station.

The PSD is intended to prevent unauthorised or accidental entry onto the tracks, and has been long awaited ever since episodes of blind passengers, with many such users at the KL Sentral and Tun Sambanthan stations, falling onto the monorail track due to the gap.

Prasarana’s immediate countermeasure involves stationing security personnel at the platforms to guide such users.

“Hence, the new system is important for the rail service to avoid unfortunate events in the identified stations,” said Loke, who added work will start this month to rectify a situation where only three of the 21 lifts at 11 monorail stations were working.

The lifts at Imbi, Hang Tuah and Tun Sambathan will be fixed by October, followed by those at Raja Chulan, Bukit Nanas, Medan Tuanku and KL Sentral by January 2025, with the last batch at Chow Kit, Titiwangsa and Maharajalela by April 2025.

Elsewhere, maintenance of the Kajang line will get a boost with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) this week between Siemens Mobility, which supplied the first batch of Kajang MRT trainsets, with local service provider SMH Rail Sdn Bhd.

“This contract also marks the start of a partnership between SMH Rail and Siemens Mobility to address the critical subsystems and components of the electric multiple unit (EMU), as well as establishing the transfer of essential manufacturing expertise from Siemens Mobility to SMH Rail,” said Siemens Mobility in a statement at the sidelines of InnoTrans 2024, the world’s largest trade show on railways.

Elsewhere, another MOU on spurring the uptake of digitalisation of railways was also signed between Siemens and Dhaya Maju Infrastructure (Asia) Sdn Bhd in a development that is expected to enhance the maintenance regime of railways in Malaysia.

“All these developments, both large and small, augur well for the industry as more players get exposure to best practices worldwide,” said Yuslizar Daud, a railway systems specialist and former head of the rail division at the Land Public Transport Commission.

“It is hoped that railway operators will up their game when it comes to maintenance as this will make or break the commuting experience for many people, some of whom may still be reluctant to ditch private transport for public transport,” he said.