Malaysian Public Transport is Crap
All the while I thought Malaysian Public Transport is crap.
I will not discuss about busses and taxis in Malaysia, otherwise I would run out of abusive words and insults quickly. Rather, I shall conserve my ammo for the service that is supposed to benefit most middle and middle lower class Malaysians staying in KL – the Rail Systems.
Since I started working, being a lazy driver and an absolute traffic jam hater, I have been taking Putra LRT to work daily. In the space of one month, I reported late for work for two times, both times late for almost 2 hours.
The first incident: door refuses to open at my destination. Someone announced that we should proceed to the next station, go down and take the train of the opposite direction. Sounds all merry and easy right? Not if EVERY train that comes from that direction is jam packed with people. Not even Jack the skeleton from the Nightmare before Christmas could get in. Putra LRT simply did not have any brilliant contingency plan to counter this problem. The outcome? I took 5 stations down to the source of the crowd, Wangsa Maju to get back to my drop off station.
The second incident: Trains could not use one side of the track, commuters are left stranded listening to the endless announcements of “The problem will be rectified shortly”. Looking at the huge crowd squeezing on the station platform, one could be forgiven to think there must be a F4 concert somewhere in town. The real sad thing is, nobody is cursing about another’s parents, no 3 letter words, 4 letter words nor 5 letter words, no scenes of some seriously irritated muscle men overturning the undersized Putra train, no burning LRT tires on the track. I’m baffled. If Malaysians are gifted in something, patience would be it. Everybody just waited silently for the next train to arrive. In fact, the only fella shouting around, looking like he is not one to be messed with, is a staff, shouting at commuters that are standing near the yellow line.
After I arrive to my office, naturally I complaint to one of my friends, and she was telling me “You’re lucky, try taking the KTM”. Wow, I’ve just gone through hell and I’m still considered lucky? Saying Malaysian public transport is crap must be an understatement then! Alright, enough about Putra LRT, it actually serves me pretty well except for 2-3 major screw ups.
Some other rants:
Putraline – Loves to boast about it being the “second longest driverless metro system in the world”. Another Malaysia boleh mentality at show here. What is so great about being “driverless” if the system is dumb and loves to close doors on hapless patrons?
Starline – They seriously need to hire somebody that knows how to talk. Every time there is an announcement, be it arrival at certain stations or impromptu announcements, I can’t grasp what is the person trying to say. Sometimes I can’t even distinguish whether is the announcer talking in Malay or English. Now to think of it, he may be announcing in Hokkien for all I know.
Monorail – You want a rollercoaster ride minus the travel to Genting Highlands? Take this! It shakes badly when moving and feels extremely unstable. No surprises that a wheel fell off during one of the tests, hitting a Bernama journalist who is thankfully still alive. And here is Mr Big Head Fish trying to blame it on someone else. Besides, the pricing system is also flawed. 50 cents difference between 2 stations that are within walking distance? (Imbi and Bukit Bintang) No way I’m paying that extra 50 cents! Unless if its raining…of course.
Though I’m not a frequent user (use it only for weekend KL trips), I’ve already experienced two seemly unrecoverable down times.
My girl friend, being a frequent user, recalls her worst incident being the one where she had to wait for 40 minutes for the train to arrive. Peak hour frequency: 2-5 minutes anyone? There were no announcements, no staff trying to give an explanation, it’s as though nothing happened.
KTM – I rarely use the KTM, but I heard it’s the head honcho and the most horrendous among these four monsters. Late arrivals and screw ups are as frequent as a newborn baby crying.
The problem is, there are no good alternatives to these systems. If Monorail fails on me in the center of KL, I’ll have a hard time trying to find a taxi driver that is both willing to fetch me to my destination and one that will not try to chop my neck off. If taxi drivers does not appeal to me that particular day, I might try the badass bus drivers instead! Each of them have something in common – daily PMS. Feeling shitty because of bus late arrivals? Pissing them off shall be the last thing you ever think of doing. Already insane drivers pissing off, not a good combination. Need directions or instructions about when to get off the bus in order to arrive somewhere? Fellow patrons are your best bet.
At one hand, we have shitty public transport. On the other hand, we have the government trying to encourage local cars’ ownership among Malaysians. (Proton is Dr M’s pet project, remember?) Government linked companies are also responsible for building toll highways – a profit generating machine. You’re forgiven if you smell something fishy. Simply put, it is not profitable for the government to improve the public transport system.
Malaysia is reported to be the 2nd most car-dependent country in Asia behind Japan. With the petrol price hiking and world oil resource running dry, there will be soon one day when we can’t afford to pay for petrol anymore, then we can all happily quit our jobs and work at home. You can only pray and hope that the public transport at that time will be well developed and efficient. Otherwise, you can also pray for the rapid development of alternative fuel. In either case, don’t count on it!
The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong conferred the Tunship, the highest honor in Malaysia on Mr Big Head Fish for his contribution to the transport sector. Killarkai would also like to confer him the Tunshit award, the first of its kind, for his outstanding idleness and magical ability with taxpayers’ money.
Feeling hopeless? Your anger does not have an output? Do not despair. Play “LRT Rampage”, a not-faithful adaptation of the 80’s classic arcade game, modded by yours truly.
In this game, the grownup albeit blood-thirsty dinosaurs from Puzzle Bobble and Bubble Bobble fame, Bub and Bob, along with their cousin Bib makes a return. (Yes, I'm aware that in the original, you control a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf, but this is MY version) Taking control of one of the angry dinos, you can also link up with 2 other friends to tear down LRT stations, break up passing by trains and swallow rail systems staff. The act of swallowing a transport ministers will give you the ability to spit fire. For moral reasons, the act of swallowing innocent public transport users will result in your dino suffering from diarrhea.
The downside is, I do not have the funds to develop this game. If you are interested to fund me, please email me. If you own the IP of "Rampage", then I’m just joking. :D
*Today, the Putra LRT experience another "technical problem", delaying my trip to office for 20 minutes, arghhh!!
** apparently, we have a glimmer of hope. The new transport minister talking about implementing a one ticket one fare system here
Some other links(good reads):
1. Mahathir 'advises' Malaysia
2. A Malaysian who actually gives solutions/suggestions (unlike me)
3. What will we drive when the oil runs out?
4. We will never run out of oil
5. And the follow-up to it
I will not discuss about busses and taxis in Malaysia, otherwise I would run out of abusive words and insults quickly. Rather, I shall conserve my ammo for the service that is supposed to benefit most middle and middle lower class Malaysians staying in KL – the Rail Systems.
Since I started working, being a lazy driver and an absolute traffic jam hater, I have been taking Putra LRT to work daily. In the space of one month, I reported late for work for two times, both times late for almost 2 hours.
The first incident: door refuses to open at my destination. Someone announced that we should proceed to the next station, go down and take the train of the opposite direction. Sounds all merry and easy right? Not if EVERY train that comes from that direction is jam packed with people. Not even Jack the skeleton from the Nightmare before Christmas could get in. Putra LRT simply did not have any brilliant contingency plan to counter this problem. The outcome? I took 5 stations down to the source of the crowd, Wangsa Maju to get back to my drop off station.
The second incident: Trains could not use one side of the track, commuters are left stranded listening to the endless announcements of “The problem will be rectified shortly”. Looking at the huge crowd squeezing on the station platform, one could be forgiven to think there must be a F4 concert somewhere in town. The real sad thing is, nobody is cursing about another’s parents, no 3 letter words, 4 letter words nor 5 letter words, no scenes of some seriously irritated muscle men overturning the undersized Putra train, no burning LRT tires on the track. I’m baffled. If Malaysians are gifted in something, patience would be it. Everybody just waited silently for the next train to arrive. In fact, the only fella shouting around, looking like he is not one to be messed with, is a staff, shouting at commuters that are standing near the yellow line.
After I arrive to my office, naturally I complaint to one of my friends, and she was telling me “You’re lucky, try taking the KTM”. Wow, I’ve just gone through hell and I’m still considered lucky? Saying Malaysian public transport is crap must be an understatement then! Alright, enough about Putra LRT, it actually serves me pretty well except for 2-3 major screw ups.
Some other rants:
Putraline – Loves to boast about it being the “second longest driverless metro system in the world”. Another Malaysia boleh mentality at show here. What is so great about being “driverless” if the system is dumb and loves to close doors on hapless patrons?
Starline – They seriously need to hire somebody that knows how to talk. Every time there is an announcement, be it arrival at certain stations or impromptu announcements, I can’t grasp what is the person trying to say. Sometimes I can’t even distinguish whether is the announcer talking in Malay or English. Now to think of it, he may be announcing in Hokkien for all I know.
Monorail – You want a rollercoaster ride minus the travel to Genting Highlands? Take this! It shakes badly when moving and feels extremely unstable. No surprises that a wheel fell off during one of the tests, hitting a Bernama journalist who is thankfully still alive. And here is Mr Big Head Fish trying to blame it on someone else. Besides, the pricing system is also flawed. 50 cents difference between 2 stations that are within walking distance? (Imbi and Bukit Bintang) No way I’m paying that extra 50 cents! Unless if its raining…of course.
Though I’m not a frequent user (use it only for weekend KL trips), I’ve already experienced two seemly unrecoverable down times.
My girl friend, being a frequent user, recalls her worst incident being the one where she had to wait for 40 minutes for the train to arrive. Peak hour frequency: 2-5 minutes anyone? There were no announcements, no staff trying to give an explanation, it’s as though nothing happened.
KTM – I rarely use the KTM, but I heard it’s the head honcho and the most horrendous among these four monsters. Late arrivals and screw ups are as frequent as a newborn baby crying.
The problem is, there are no good alternatives to these systems. If Monorail fails on me in the center of KL, I’ll have a hard time trying to find a taxi driver that is both willing to fetch me to my destination and one that will not try to chop my neck off. If taxi drivers does not appeal to me that particular day, I might try the badass bus drivers instead! Each of them have something in common – daily PMS. Feeling shitty because of bus late arrivals? Pissing them off shall be the last thing you ever think of doing. Already insane drivers pissing off, not a good combination. Need directions or instructions about when to get off the bus in order to arrive somewhere? Fellow patrons are your best bet.
At one hand, we have shitty public transport. On the other hand, we have the government trying to encourage local cars’ ownership among Malaysians. (Proton is Dr M’s pet project, remember?) Government linked companies are also responsible for building toll highways – a profit generating machine. You’re forgiven if you smell something fishy. Simply put, it is not profitable for the government to improve the public transport system.
Malaysia is reported to be the 2nd most car-dependent country in Asia behind Japan. With the petrol price hiking and world oil resource running dry, there will be soon one day when we can’t afford to pay for petrol anymore, then we can all happily quit our jobs and work at home. You can only pray and hope that the public transport at that time will be well developed and efficient. Otherwise, you can also pray for the rapid development of alternative fuel. In either case, don’t count on it!
The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong conferred the Tunship, the highest honor in Malaysia on Mr Big Head Fish for his contribution to the transport sector. Killarkai would also like to confer him the Tunshit award, the first of its kind, for his outstanding idleness and magical ability with taxpayers’ money.
Feeling hopeless? Your anger does not have an output? Do not despair. Play “LRT Rampage”, a not-faithful adaptation of the 80’s classic arcade game, modded by yours truly.
In this game, the grownup albeit blood-thirsty dinosaurs from Puzzle Bobble and Bubble Bobble fame, Bub and Bob, along with their cousin Bib makes a return. (Yes, I'm aware that in the original, you control a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf, but this is MY version) Taking control of one of the angry dinos, you can also link up with 2 other friends to tear down LRT stations, break up passing by trains and swallow rail systems staff. The act of swallowing a transport ministers will give you the ability to spit fire. For moral reasons, the act of swallowing innocent public transport users will result in your dino suffering from diarrhea.
The downside is, I do not have the funds to develop this game. If you are interested to fund me, please email me. If you own the IP of "Rampage", then I’m just joking. :D
*Today, the Putra LRT experience another "technical problem", delaying my trip to office for 20 minutes, arghhh!!
** apparently, we have a glimmer of hope. The new transport minister talking about implementing a one ticket one fare system here
Some other links(good reads):
1. Mahathir 'advises' Malaysia
2. A Malaysian who actually gives solutions/suggestions (unlike me)
3. What will we drive when the oil runs out?
4. We will never run out of oil
5. And the follow-up to it
posted by killarkai at 11:56 AM
8 comments
