Benefits and challenges of a rail culture

KUALA LUMPUR (April 29): Contrary to popular belief, the younger generation of Malaysia is not opposed to maximising the facilities of public transport but they are concerned about safety, as raised by a few members of the floor at a forum entitled “Industry Speaks: The Rail Challenge – Taking a City From Good to Great: A Case for Public Transportation in Malaysia” held today in KL Sentral.

“The vision is simple, it is to create a public transport system and to make urban rail transport the highest priority as it can to carry 30,000 to 60,000 commuters per hour one way,” said CEO of Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal at the forum.

He went on to address the issue of safety that was raised, and he encouraged members of the public to immediately report the matter on all social platforms provided by SPAD. Alternatively, there is a mobile application by SPAD known as MeterOn where victims of taxi haggling can send their complaints.

Another speaker, Azmi Abdul Aziz, group managing director of Prasarana Group said the light rail transit 3 (LRT 3) system will cover 100% of Selangor's integrated train stations from Bandar Utama to the South of Klang. He mentioned that the project will take off sometime in the mid-year.

On a separate note, senior principal of Veritas Architects Lilian Tay said that one should not be afraid of high-density developments in the city, and explained that this is to allow the maximisation of urban infrastructure development.

Executive director of Think City Hamdan Abdul Majeed said that just like every country, Malaysia has to continuously enhance its public transportation services, not just limited to rail, but also buses and taxis to cater to the increasing population.

Industry Speaks was presented by Economic Transformation Programme’s Business Circle.