Penang LRT: learning from MRT1’s mistakes

 

A recent proposal to extend the Penang LRT from George Town to Butterworth via a rail bridge has raised a number of concerns.

Allocating resources for such expensive infrastructure without addressing actual passenger demand seems imprudent.

Without doubt, the cost of building this rail bridge will be massive, but what are the returns?

It is essential to base the LRT alignment on genuine passenger needs and data rather than succumbing to political whims.

Over reliance on foreigners

Firstly, building infrastructure in anticipation of demand, rather than responding to existing needs, is an inefficient planning approach.

Secondly, we must take into account that an over-reliance on foreign consultants who were detached from the local context led to issues in MRT1 (the Sungai Buloh to Kajang line), including overlooking critical demand areas such as Universiti Malaya.

Instead, they preferred the Damansara Heights route which does not attract many passengers where there was no demand to begin with.

Malaysian consultants, intimately familiar with the realities on the ground, are better equipped to draw alignments that maximise passenger catchment areas.

The LRT is meant to serve a succession of high demand areas that may not exist along a straight line.

Malaysian experts will be better able to plan an alignment that will incorporate the areas which the LRT is meant to serve.

So, why are Malaysian experts not used in Penang LRT’s alignment study?

Demand study data 

It goes without saying that any LRT or MRT alignment study must be driven by, or closely linked to, studies on passenger demands.

In the case of the Penang LRT, the study has shown that the highest demand corridors do not lie between Butterworth and George Town where the expensive rail bridge is proposed.

Where is the succession of catchment areas that this link proposes to capture?

In fact, this link is along a comparatively thin demand corridor, where ferry services were once halted and experienced a three-year hiatus. These days, the route is served by low-capacity fast ferries.

Conversely, routes like Bayan Lepas to Komtar (George Town) also represent a thin demand corridor, where the existing passenger arrivals are sufficiently served by road transport, specifically taxis and buses.

To meet future needs, this route could easily be served by road trams or autonomous road trams (ART) similar to the ones currently being tested in Putrajaya and Kuching.

ART represents a much cheaper investment with high returns, but are the planning authorities considering them at all?

They could provide up to 400 passengers per vehicle, per direction, which could easily be deployed for the Penang Airport to George Town route.

High demand corridors 

So, the question to ask is, where are the high demand corridors that justify investing into an LRT system for Penang?

Transport demand studies for Penang have recently pointed back to a route that lies in two places.

The first one is between Seberang Jaya to Bayan Lepas, while the second high-traffic route is between Bukit Mertajam and the Bayan Lepas industrial zones.

Both routes are very much dependent on Penang’s first bridge, which is a tolled bridge.

Both of these two routes are suffering from bad traffic congestions and an obvious lack of public transport services.

Designing the LRT alignment to cater to these two high-demand corridors would alleviate longstanding congestion issues for daily commuters, making the investment worthwhile.

This Penang LRT needs the passenger volume in order to make it viable. These passengers also need to be moved at high speed and at high frequency.

These are the factors to be considered when determining the final alignment.

As such, the proposed LRT must be designed for these two routes.

The routes have passenger volume and are currently congested. The high passenger volume calls for quick transit times at high frequency to facilitate their journeys to work.

This “journey to work” category represents the highest percentage of all the journeys daily. This is how to draw passengers out of their cars into public transport services.

Secondly, with the LRT in place, these commuters do not have to drive through congestion and pay exorbitant costs anymore on their daily commute.

Wasn’t this why the LRT was planned for Penang (and the Klang Valley) in the first place?

Having a rail bridge across the Penang Straits sounds glamorous but it will not solve the current congestion between Seberang Perai and Penang island. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.