The public transport system here and in Petaling Jaya will be overhauled at a cost of RM2 billion and work will commence this year.

The plan calls for putting more buses on the road and extending the commuter rail service.

"We are going all out to get people out of their cars andon to buses and trains," Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad chief executive officer Shaipudin Shah Harun said today.

SPNB, which owns both Kuala Lumpur’s light rail transit and buses under the name RapidKL, will streamline the existing public transport infrastructure.

Some features of the plan:

• Improving bus service.
• Extending the Putra LRT rail service to Subang Jaya and the Star LRT service to Old Klang Road.
• Adding carriages to the existing Putra LRT’s two-carriage trains and building up to 12 new lines.

The plan was announced by Shaipudin after he handed over 120 buses, costing RM43.2 million, to RapidKL.

With the new buses, SPNB has delivered 202 buses to RapidKL.

He said only 15 per cent of the people who travelled to work in the city daily were using public transport.

"We aim to double Kuala Lumpur’s bus ridership in two years to bring it on par with Bangkok, but we will still be way behind Singapore’s 60 per cent," he said.

RapidKL’s data show that about 1.5 million people drive to the city centre and only about 500,000 use public transport.

The data show that 180,000 commute by bus, while 190,000 take the Putra LRT, exceeding its capacity by 40 per cent.

Another 120,000 go by Star LRT, which is under-utilised by 66 per cent.

To attract more commuters to use the trains, Shaipudin said the existing rail services would be extended by 10 to 15km.

He said part of the funding would come from the Government and the rest would be raised from the capital market.

Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RapidKL) chief executive officer Rein Westra said by the end of next year there would be 1,500 buses serving Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

A new ticketing system will also be introduced to integrate the bus and train services.

The City Shuttle Network, which will ensure everyone is within 250m of a bus stop or an LRT station, covers five new hubs. These are Pekeliling, KLCC, KL Sentral, Central Market and Taman Maluri.

"The service will start in the middle of this month and we are talking about a bus service every five minutes," Westra said.

RapidKL now has a fleet of 1,117 buses serving 15 routes.

Source: New Straits Times