WHILE the current state of public transportation is far from ideal, there has been continuous efforts to improve since the 1990s, said an old reporter who has been covering transportation since the mid-1990s (that's me, lah).
In fact, we are nearly 30 years into the Klang Valley urban transport transformation process.
The Intrakota move was one of the early efforts to consolidate the city/Klang Valley bus service so that lower density routes could be cross-subsidised by more popular ones.
To some extent, it worked as we now have better quality buses.
Intrakota gave us air-conditioned stage buses; even mini buses had air-conditioners.
Before that, if we wanted to enjoy air-conditioned stage buses, there was only Metrobus with undisciplined drivers who not only ignored timetables but were known to drive recklessly as their earnings were based on number of trips and ticket sales.
Intrakota gave us a slightly better adherence to timetables on routes that were less dense. Popular routes were not a problem as they were profitable and allocated sufficient resources to ensure buses could run quite regularly and on time.
These days, I do take public transport from time to time just to get a feel for it.
The Intrakota consolidation was accompanied by resistance from bus companies and some remain to this day as independent operators. But as a whole, the consolidation worked out as planned and that has now developed into RapidKL, which offers clean and well-lit buses and improvements in terms of connectivity to the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems.
There were two LRT lines, namely Putra that ran from Subang to Gombak, and STAR that ran from Sentul to Bukit Jalil and Sentul to Ampang, with the line branching out at Chan Sow Lin.
Meanwhile, the monorail service helped connect KL Sentral with the city centre.
Masjid Jamek was Putra-STAR interchange, Hang Tuah was monorail-STAR interchange, Pekeliling was STAR-monorail again while KL Sentral was Putra-monorail interchange.
There were also interchange stations with KTM Komuter at KL Sentral and Sungai Besi (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan). If you are willing to walk a bit, you can get off the STAR line at Sogo/Bandaraya and walk to Bank Negara station to catch a KTM Komuter train.
The introduction of the MRT Line 1 really upped the game with higher-capacity trains and increased feeder bus frequency.
At the same time, the upgrade to the Putra and STAR lines effectively turned them into a huge circle line.
It takes two hours to complete the circuit from Bangsar to Bangsar because I tried it — told you I am a bit of trainspotter.
A good circle line is crucial for the success of rail mass transit as it allows for easy circular movement between the finger systems.
With the introduction of MRT Line 2, we have created what is almost a second loop for the southern part of the city all the way to Putrajaya. Now, if only they can find some money to connect Putrajaya to Kajang, that would be great.
Meanwhile, LRT Line 3 is connecting Damansara Utama with Shah Alam and Klang. It's a very long line that will likely take two hours to run end to end and I am really looking forward to this because it now makes every place along that route more liveable as a dormitory district for the Klang Valley.
At the same time, MRT 3, which is now under planning and perhaps has just completed the public feedback process, will create an inner city circle line.
This inner circle line is necessary to disperse traffic and significantly increase the reach, usability, and sophistication of the system.
By that, I mean the possible combination of routes will increase as the number of interconnecting stations increase, allowing for more usability as we plan our daily movements.
And this takes me to the very important discipline of planning our movement by the system, which we can do manually if you remember all the connecting stations — which you will if you use it often enough.
Personally, I think the way that we have planned our mass transit lines are quite good in the sense that it serves many of the highest density areas that faced severe traffic congestion issues, such as Petaling Jaya, Ampang, Sentul and Gombak, while promoting Bukit Jalil as another dormitory district.
Infrastructure projects can be very expensive and to that end, there are criticisms about how much is being spent on each rail line. If invited to their media sessions, I usually raise questions about costs and how the project stacks up against those overseas.
This is not as straightforward as you may think as local conditions vary and there are other factors such as the cost of technology transfer.
The first two LRT projects gave us tremendous new capability for modern civil engineering, including learning new and modern techniques of viaduct buildings, from tensioning pre-cast sections to the sosrobahu (1,000 shoulders) technique that we adopted from Indonesia.
The LRT projects also gave local engineers their first taste of tunnel boring machines and that made it possible for Malaysia to construct the flood water control tunnel.
Therefore, as a general rule, I will not oppose the construction of infrastructure projects even if they do seem a bit pricey as such large-scale and long-term projects will inevitably require some sort of local displacement.
In a few years, we will see the completion of the LRT 3 and MRT 3 projects and with that, we should have the bones of a workable urban transport system.
In fact, the government should start talking about road pricing now as way of getting Malaysians used to the idea of restricting traffic flow into the city.
Managing inner city traffic through road pricing is only fair once we have decent public transportation. Part of the income from road pricing can also be used to pay for public transportation upkeep.
The economic benefit of city folk using public transportation and reducing time wasted in traffic congestions may be worth more than the entire automotive industry as it stands now.
It is time for local authorities to investigate the possibility of "pedestrian-ising" the city and creating weather-friendly footways.
In the near future, we should also prepare the country for the implementation of driverless taxi systems in the inner city.
And if you thought the End-of-Life Vehicle policy was the be all and end all, it is merely part of the move forward in modernising our transportation system.