KUALA LUMPUR: Efforts to improve the urban public transport system has successfully reshaped the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley (Greater KL/KV) area, through the implementation of high-impact projects, according to the National Transformation Programme (NTP) Annual Report 2017.
It was recorded that there were 1.21 million daily average ridership of rail and bus combined in 2017.
"The survey showed that overall customer satisfaction with public transport had increased to 90 per cent in 2017 from 84 per cent in 2016," said the report.
The Light Rail Transit (LRT) including the LRT Line Extension Project had made up 38 per cent (457,685 commuters) of the total public transport ridership.
The new LRT3 project would connect about two million people along the western corridor of Klang Valley from Johan Setia to Bandar Utama.
Notably, the report mentioned that the new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) managed to remove up to 160,000 vehicles in the Klang Valley with the MRT Line 1 recording an average daily ridership of 110,000.
Other contributing factors to the customer satisfaction index were the rehabilitation of 40 kilometres of track and the enhancement of 16 KTM commuter stations.
Meanwhile, in an effort to enhance bus services, the bus network revamp covers more of Greater KL/KV routes and had contributed an increase of 20.4 per cent in service coverage (from 7,643 kilometers to 9,202 kilometers).
"The survey showed 90 per cent of bus operators managed to improve their services and 11 stage bus operators servicing 348 routes daily has brought up the percentage of bus ridership to 9 per cent.
"A total of 4,547 bus information panels have been installed to provide route and schedule information.
"To ensure public transportation is more accessible, eight intra-city terminal hubs have been built integrating various forms of public transport," the report added.
Under the Taxi Industry Transformation Programme (TITP), 2,460 new individual taxi licenses had been approved.
"A total of 581 drivers received a RM5,000 cash grant to purchase new taxis. Also, ride sharing regulations and policies was set to allow taxi and e-hailing services to co-exist," it said.
To make public transportation more convenient for the people, the government established a journey planner app to enable access to public transport arrival information, schedules, journey options and real-time notifications.
Also, the Integrated Common Payment System (ICPS) which allows a standard ticketing system for all rail operations in Greater KL/KV has now reached 61 per cent completion.
To increase the availability of parking, to date there are 20,000 parking bays in Greater KL/KV.
"A total of 2,759 parking bays have been constructed at eight Park-and-Ride (PnR) and throughout the LRT Network, 10,102 parking bays have been added while 8,000 parking bays were built along the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line," the report said.