Malaysian Rush Train

1. I think it is about time that I say a few words about the proposed MRT service. There has been cries about the proposed MRT development where it seems that a corporation has been a given an open ended contract. They design and determined the QS works involved in the project and the government is purely what we in the army called, “paymaster”.

2. Do we need an MRT service for Klang Valley? I agree we need one. Do we need an MRT at such an exorbitant cost? I don’t think so? Do we need an MRT service that is designed, engineered and cost determined by the corporation that is building it? Clearly that is a big NO!

3. The problem with Klang Valley is that our planners did not plan the city with movement of people in mind. Infrastructure came later. This is not the case with Singapore where MRT was planned in 1967 and was only built in the 80′s and first line was opened in 1987. This inadvertently will lead to development of rail lines with poor inter-connectivity and displacement of homes and people.

4. Based on impact and cost, I believe there is a need to revisit the MRT project. We need to consider a leaner system which combines rail transport and BRT (Bus rapid transit). What is clear is that we have some good network of roads connectivity. Therefore this infrastructure should be capitalized. A BRT can easily move people at a decent speed if it is organized properly. If the Brazilians in Curitiba can do it there is no reason why we can’t?

5. Imagined if there is a good BRT from along the Ampang road between Kosas that goes straight from there and stopped at several locations and ends up in KLCC and somewhere near Jalan Bonus area. If the system is good, many single occupancy vehicle owners will stop driving. I wrote to Rapid KL management and had asked them to consider running a bus service from BA-MRR-AKLEH-Sultan Ismail under their BET system. So far no luck yet other than courteous reply. The current MRT is not justifiable based on cost benefit analysis.

courtesy of Rights2Write