Poor transport services: ‘Our hands are tied’

The Land Public Transport Commission cannot punish public transport companies for their poor services.

INTERVIEW

PETALING JAYA: Heads will not roll if the trains are late, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said.

SPAD chairman Syed Hamid Albar said that his commission could not punish inefficient public transport companies as it pleased.

“What do you want us to do?” he asked in an interview with FMT last week. He was asked if SPAD had the power to punish these companies with fines or threaten dismissals if they continued with inefficient services.

“If you do that, there will be a failure of natural justice of human rights. You have to give them a show-cause (letter)… there are processes… you can’t just simply take action.”

Syed Hamid said that SPAD had two roles to play – as a public transport authority and a regulator.

But, he added, the commission’s job was not to be judge, jury and executioner.

“What you are asking us is to make sure we run the rails… We do not have the.. the rules (that say): ‘If you come late, we will fine you.’”

“You are asking us to be the investigator, prosecutor and the judge. We can’t. We can’t take the whole process on. But we can regulate and moderate things,” he said.

Onus on bus companies

Nevertheless, he said it was up to owners of these companies to rectify their own problems.

“It has to be the companies… they must take action… What we have done so far is to call them and tell them that the public is not very happy. (Then we ask), ‘What are you going to do about it?’”

“We can’t just punish and sack them. No company in the world can do that!” he said.

Malaysians, especially Klang Valley residents, have had to deal with poor public transport services over the years.

Trains, excepting perhaps the Light Rail Transit (LRT), are frequently late. Mechanical failures are common in Keretapi Tanah Melayu’s (KTM) Komuter coaches and hour-long delays are common.

Buses are not exempt from complaints as well, with some users having to wait a long time for their rides to arrive.

Even so, Syed Hamid claimed that he was well aware of the problems affecting public transport users, and their indifference to government promises towards improvement.

“I agree. There is a lack of public confidence in public transport. That’s why we need to make our actions more conspicious,” he said.

He added that checks-and-balances might be a good way to keep Malaysia’s public transport in check.

Nasty tweets

“I think there should be KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), measurements of performance, compliance and failure of compliance,” he said.

He said developed countries with better public transport systems often put in these measures to make sure that the trains and buses arrived at their stations on time.

“It should be part of our policy… but all these are possibilities… we have not finalised the various issues,” he added.

However, Syed Hamid said that Malaysia’s public transport issues could not be solved overnight.

He complained that many people, including public transport NGOs, were not being fair to SPAD over this matter.

“I get very nasty tweets from all sorts of public transport NGOs. They think SPAD must have a magic wand, and must be able to do wonders overnight,” he said.

Syed Hamid added that SPAD needed more time to clean up the public transport system before it could be on par with the rest of the world.

“I will not pretend (that everything is solved). We are here to make changes. Give us time. We cannot just change things that have been there the whole time,” he said.