IN the past three months, there have been various news on the Mass Rapid Transit 2 (MRT2), Light Rail Transit (LRT) extension, LRT3 and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
First, the public were shown the MRT2 stations and alignment. MRT2 is better than MRT1 as it has more stations in the city centre.
However, there are still many locations not accessible by MRT, such as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Pudu, Jalan Imbi, Jalan Pahang, Jalan Genting Kelang, Jalan Gombak and Jalan Semarak, to name a few. They represent important commercial, tourism and educational hubs.
The areas mentioned do not even fall in the proposed alignment of the MRT3, which circles the city centre. The public have to take feeder buses or taxis to the nearest station.
As more and more cars flood our roads, riding on a bus to the LRT/MRT station is no longer appealing. During peak hours, it will probably take half an hour to travel by bus for a mere distance of 2km to the stations.
Outside Kuala Lumpur, there are other cities and towns that require MRT stations within its vicinity. Petaling Jaya is one of them.
We need a few more MRT lines, a few radial and an outer circle line. The radial lines could be a west-east link (Subang Jaya-Petaling Jaya-KL-Hulu Ampang) and north-east to south-west link (Setapak-Genting Klang-KL-OUG).
Next is the news that the LRT3 tender is to be awarded soon. The LRT3 looks good but why does it take so long to build compared with the MRT?
The end station in Bandar Utama should be considered for extension to Damansara Perdana (a new commercial hub), Flora Damansara, Sunway SPK Damansara, Kepong Sentral and Selayang.
Then, there is the LRT extension. When the extension was proposed nearly 10 years ago, there was a mixed response.
But now, commuters using stations on the old alignment have started to feel the pinch. The trains become packed at the old stations.
At later stations, commuters do not even have the chance to board the trains due to the unbalanced capacity flow.
Finally, the battery-run electric buses project connecting Sunway to KL is always packed. In just a matter of months, the mini-electrified buses quickly reached its capacity during peak hours. Just imagine what it would be like two, five or 10 years from now.
There is no doubt that we need more MRT lines. In designing a new line, the station location is of utmost important.
It should be positioned at the centre of the area or at its focal point. Shying away from the focal point will result in traffic congestion being dispersed wider.
Malaysia’s hot and humid condition has deemed walking more than 200m unfavourable.
Furthermore, the affluent 30 per cent will abandon the MRT/LRT if they need to take a bus connection that has poor frequency. The distance between stations should also be kept shorter, similar to Prasa-rana’s Lembah Subang and Ara Damansara stations, which are only 400m apart.
London is about the size of the Klang Valley but it has more than 20 lines combining MRT, LRT, main lines and sub-lines, but we only have two, while another two are under construction.
M.A.B.A, Kuala Lumpur