Solve the Spad issues before going after Uber and Grabcar

The government should forget about trying to regulate Uber and Grabcar until it has solved the issues relating to public transport.

Both ride-sharing services thrive because they are able to fill the vacuum created by poor planning. Those in the ivory tower appear to know nothing about the suffering that people go through.

For example, a taxi ride for Mona Lisa, Rekha, Vijaya, Vino, Uma and Kalai from Taman Wahyu KTM station to their homes in Bandar Baru Selayang costs RM18. They have to commute to work every day by train.

Recently, Rapid Bus U3 service has been discontinued. In the past, they said that SJ 151 cost RM3 and the frequency during peak hours was every 45 minutes to an hour; but now, it is one bus every two hours. If the earliest that they could reach home is 9.45pm, where is life for these employees working with a company in Chow Kit?

At times, there are no buses at all! This is where they will have to fork out exorbitant taxi fares, or else they would be stranded.

When asked, it is not surprising that they sing the same chorus that, since the establishment of the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad), nothing has improved; instead, things have only gotten worse.

Every formula that they have introduced has created unnecessary inconveniences to the commuters themselves. Their colleagues, Darrshine, Christina, Vijay and Revathy live in Bandar Country Homes Rawang. Between 6.30am to 7.45am, there are no buses from Bandar Country Homes and the taxi fares cost RM14 for each trip.

“It is expensive because they do not have bus service,” they said. “In the evening, it takes at least one hour just to wait for the bus from Chow Kit to Rawang, and another two hours for the bus from Rawang to Bandar Country Homes. In total, we take at least three hours for each trip.”

Mahira, who lives in Taman Sri Segambut, travels on a Rapid U14 bus to Chow Kit every morning. Now, she has to take two buses which requires one to two hours of waiting for the T190 and another one hour to transit into bus 190. Sometimes, if the bus is full, it would not stop. In the evening, when she has to transit between 190 to T190, it takes another one hour.

Another commuter, Fatimatuzzohrah, said she used Rapid U8 buses from Damansara Damai to Chow Kit. The waiting period was 20 minutes. However, now, with the new changes, the Selangor Omnibus bus takes about one-and-half hours to come.

Since the changes made, Shamala, Siseliya, Mogana, Priya, Thiruchelvy, Kalaivaani, Jayasholai and Chandralekha from Taman Sri Murni, Selayang said that in the morning, they had always travelled on Metro Bus No 43 until the service ended recently.

Now, the service has dropped. There used to be a bus once every 15 minutes during peak hours between 7.30am and 8.30am, but now, the frequency has dropped. In fact, between 5.00pm to 6.30pm, buses are usually full and they would not stop.

What formula?

Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said that a formula would be created to regulate the drivers of Uber and Grabcar. This, he said, would include registration of the drivers, Public Service Vehicle licence (PSV) and routine vehicle inspection by Puspakom.

Please answer me, in the 80s, there used to be mini-buses. Although the buses were properly licensed and checked by the predecessor of Puspakom, was the service any better? We know that the core of the problem with vehicle licensing and vehicle checks is the alleged high degree of corruption within the monitoring agencies involved.

The answer is too obvious for us to even debate upon, but I have to agree that the mini-buses had at least been very competitive in making public transportation affordable to more people. It also served a need, which was why people preferred the mini-buses instead of the long buses, yet we are making the same mistakes over and over again by engaging long buses.

Instead of killing the sector, the government should have looked at ways to improve and bring back the mini-bus services. My suggestion has always been to use the stage buses for long distances from one depot to another; thereafter, there should be mini-buses to provide the shuttle services between the depots and the housing estates.

The key word I use for these mini-buses is ‘high-frequency’. People want to be able to hop on any mini-bus that gets them to the depot; once they reach their destination, the moment that they hop down from the stage buses, they should be able to connect using an intra-city bus.

Melbourne has its trams which serve the people well. For that reason, the service has continued through the years. Short of such a public transportation system, the government should look at the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project between Kelana Jaya and Bandar Sunway.

The brainchild of Jeffrey Cheah of Sunway, this project is simply brilliant. It means that the buses will now become the faster mode of transport preferred by people compared to the taxis.

Now, with the BRT line, anyone can take the LRT to Kelana Jaya, hop onto a bus and still get to the destination in Bandar Sunway within a short time, and more importantly, feeling comfortable despite rain or shine.

Until the government and Spad can solve the current issues and reach the efficiency of the BRT, it should liberalise the current transport system; instead of regulating, it should look at ways to enhance the Uber and Grabcar services so that the drivers can earn a good living as well as provide a service to the people.

At the same time, the taxi services should also be liberalised into of giving licences only to a few crony companies. I had a bad encounter with one of them over the taxi fares that was caused by slow counter services at close to midnight, but its chief executive officer did not even have good public and customer relations to handle my complaints.

I suggest that, unless the issues affecting commuters are solved immediately, we should vote in a government that listens to the people. As it is now, until and unless the polls are used as a negotiating chip, nothing appears to happen under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s administration.

Having said that, the image of a picture of Najib which has gone viral flashes across my mind. In it, Najib is seen, with the words, “We are listening to you!” This was before the last general election and this image is still there on KTM Komuter Trains and billboards; thereafter, another image showing prices of the train tickets has shot up!

Thanks to whoever created this short banner, let this image go viral since Najib is still helming Putrajaya despite the incessant urging by the rakyat for him to step down.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini