4.8.07

Public Transportation Systems

Now I understand why LRT commuter in KL is sooo much lower that Singapore MRT systems. Yesterday night I made a simple comparison by using PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SORCES, which is GOOGLE Earth. Unlike other writings, which made the conclusion at the end of their writings, I made the conclusion in my earliest paragraph for you to grasp the points that I’m going to tabulate.





Conclusion
Singapore MRT systems (stations) was planned first before building the surroundings residential or commercial or industrial development. Where as Kuala Lumpur did not planned the LRT Stations first, but they will put the LRT Stations wherever available places which was left undeveloped like next to river, existing road, existing rail track, etc.

Factors that Influence Commuters
These factors made LRT unpopular due to access to the stations always blocked by river, rail-track or road. In Singapore, the MRT Stations is located almost at the center of the residential development. This makes residents of the apartments or flat in Singapore do not have to walk far away to get to the station. And another method of transportation from their residents are by feeder BUSES. Their feeder buses are not FREE. Our feeder buses are not FREE too. However, since their residential developments are well-planned, their residents are using BUS to get to the Stations. Therefore, they do not sweat when travel to the nearest MRT Station. They have a lot of buses to circle their residential area and the frequencies are rapid too. Like 10 minutes per bus. By simple calculation, they just need 6 buses per hour per route. Of course this kind of rapid frequency just operate during rush hours like 7-9 am and 6-9pm. Other that that time range, they can deploy the buses to take longer route to the nearest township. Their feeder buses are sharp on time when it comes to the concern bus arrival timetable.
Now, compare that to our feeder bus service. You’ve heard that our feeder buses are not on time. They can come and pick-up the passenger whenever they want. Even we have a beautiful bus arrival timetable, it is just a timetable. The driver does not really make an effort to follow the timetable. This makes our bus commuters inefficient in managing their time. And, you’ve about people complaining about they have to change 2 buses to get to the LRT Stations or Komuter Stations too. This shows inefficiency in utilizing the resources, which is the buses. Why to they need to change 2 buses to get to LRT Stations. The buses are meant for FEEDER bus, which means the bus feed commuters to the LRT or Komuter Stations. Therefore, we should only utilized one bus per route. The second bus can find other un-service route to pick more commuters. With this kind of inefficiency, even if you offer FREE feeder bus, nobody will ride the bus. People would rather drive to go to the Stations and park their car at the parking lots. While parking lots will take a lot of space, this leads to inefficient usage of space!

Coaches
While MRT coach is up to 6 coaches, our LRT coach only 2 per one time service, even during peak hours! Now, how would you expect our public transportation system is going to make money when we do not grab the opportunity during peak hour commuters? We would rather see the 2 coaches that we prepare become packed like sardines or when the coach is over-weight and derail? This is nonsense and ridiculous. Compare 2 coaches and 6 coaches, which make 3 times revenue and possibly 3 times profit (if any). Simple mathematics!

Solutions
Expedite Residential Development around a Station.
Well, we can’t change the route of our LRT or Komuter Stations anymore. It would be costly to re-built and re-plan our routes. Therefore, what we can do is to expedite the residential developments that surround a Station. Build a lot of strata property around a station. Do not build landed properties. Let landed properties be built in some other hilly areas or near jungle area. You might complain that a rail line near residential area would disturb the comfortness of the residents. Believe me that having a LRT station near your apartment is more convenient than to change 2 feeder buses to get to the station. The convenience will override the comfortablity. Further, the LRT will not operate at 1-6am during your sleep time.

Shades
Provide shades to link to the Station and make it beautiful and colorful. This is a cheap solution to get people to walk to the stations. This will also help us to reduce the obesity problems that most Malaysians have. And, as you are all aware, Malaysia is a tropical country. During daytime, it is very hot and humid, when it rains, it rains heavily and you’ll get wet. Having shades link to the station makes life easier for the commuters. Some MRT Stations in Singapore has shades.

Feeder Bus
We should prepare more feeder buses to serve a particular area. Make it more frequent during rush hours. Like 10 minutes per bus. Rush hour is from 7-9 am and from 6-9 pm.

Stations Waiting Area
Separate the public transportation waiting area and the normal public waiting area. Therefore, bus lining up to fetch or dispatch commuters and the normal friends or relatives or parents who are waiting for their children/spouse/relatives have different waiting area. The public transportation waiting area is nearer to the station compare to the normal public car. Make the waiting area for public transportation ONLY. People who do not use the public transport has to walk farther.

Lets try this and see the difference. I believe we will transform our public transportation system to the most efficient and most profitable public transportation system in the world.


PJ-Investor.

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