Anthony Loke: Transport Ministry to increase Skypark Link ridership

SUBANG (Nov 27): The Transport Ministry aims to increase the ridership of the Skypark Link rail service between KL Sentral and Skypark Terminal Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport by 50% within a year. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the service's ridership is not encouraging.

Ridership only reached 150 passengers a day when the capacity of each trip is 300 passengers, Loke said during his working visit to the Skypark Terminal here today. With 26 daily trips, he said the rail service's total capacity per day is 7,800 passengers.

"Since May 1, even though the fare is free, the ridership of the service was not encouraging. There were only 150 people who used it a day when the capacity of each trip is 300. So it's a long way to go. We cannot expect to achieve the numbers in a short period of time but we hope to increase it by 30% to 50% in the next six months to one year.

"One thing that is lacking right now is that the train station is not fully integrated to the rest of the airport terminal. Even though we have a covered walkway, it is not comfortably accessible. We plan to create a link bridge to connect the station to the airport which will be covered and include a walkalator," he said.

Loke said the ministry will talk to the operator of Skypark Terminal Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport on the proposed construction of the link bridge. — theedgemarkets.com

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