Feeder buses will begin plying from Juru and Bandar Perda on the mainland today to link up with the Bridge Express Shuttle Transit (Best) bus service.
This is another positive move by the Penang state government, working together with the federally owned Rapid Penang, to expand the use of public transport in the state.
Some 800 people are presently using Best. That is close to 800 vehicles fewer on the Penang Bridge during peak hours.
Unfortunately, the federal entity, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad, has not responded to the Penang state government’s other plan: to allocate RM10m a year for public buses to provide free transport during peak hours on the island. Why is Prasarana not cooperating?
From the Rapid Penang website:
BEST (Bridge Express Shuttle Transit) was first introduced by Penang State Government in March 2011 as the country’s first park and ride service. The BEST service is an effort by Penang State Government to promote the use of public transport. For the past two years the daily commuter has increased up to 800 commuters. As of 3 September 2012, Penang State Government expand the service by introducing two new feeder hub at Bandar Perda and Auto City at Juru.
The express service will now depart from Bandar Sunway, Bandar Perda and Auto City Juru to FIZ Bayan Lepas, in the morning and return from FIZ area in the evening the operating period for the express service is as follows:
Morning Session : 6.10am to 8.10am
Evening Session : 4.30pm to 6.50pmCar parking will be available at Sunway Carnival Mall, Bandar Perda (opposite LHDN) and Auto City Car Park. Factory personnel can park their vehicles around this area and board the express service to Bayan Lepas FIZ. The express service will cover all areas in FIZ 1,2,3,4 , Technoplex and BLIP.
New features and benefits of the expansion of BEST Service will include better connectivity from Sunway Carnival, Bandar Perda (BM), Auto City Juru to Komtar via Queensbay Mall.
| Please help to support this blog if you can. Read the commenting guidlelines for this blog. |
Save petrol (and car maintenance on long term), save bridge toll, avoid frustrating traffic jam, take a nap and go green. Park and ride. Such a green effort initiated by the Penang govt yet response is still luke warm. Are Penangites too proud to park and ride, environmentally unfriendly, too rich or just “tidak apa”. One can save upto RM20/day using this free shuttle service or RM400/month. Think of this. There’s enough to pay monthly installment for a medium size family car that you can use during the weekend to bring your family out for a good time at the… Read more »
It is my wishful thinking for Johor government to provide such free feeder service for JB residents working in Singapore i.e. free bus from JB township to Singapore’s Kranji MRT station.
We can dream but if we opt for UBAH, we can hope for better things to come.
It is good to hear that 800 people are benefitting from this bus service.There are many more people who are benefitting from the shuttle service in Georgetown which was started by the previous government. I had always maintain that it should not be free. At least charge a nominal sum.
According to Bolehland(TM) ruling, if you charge a fees, than it will falls under federal government jurisdiction.
However, a “donation” is another story. Since the services is experimental for the time being, the collection can always implement later.
800 less car? Unless there is benchmark and survey, we can’t sure these 800+ passenger will lead to 800 less car. Since this is a free services, the ultimate goals is experiment the most efficient way of utilise the service, rather than the usual “conveniences”. IMHO, breaking down all the bus services point to more localised hub and spokes point, (similar to courier/postal services collection and forward services) this will reduce bus that “trapped” inside particular busy traffics route. Currently, Bolehland transport ministry purposely “jammed” the bus services by forcing too many “direct route services”. For many people that don’t… Read more »
As far as free public transport goes, the state gomen is trying to help the workers ease on their transport costs. And to also reduce volume of cars plying the bridge during peak time (which also means less revenue for the bridge toll collections!) & better quality of air (now is haze season, no thanks to the Indon estate burning). Since cost of living is getting higher in Penang, this can help in some ways & maybe encourage some to migrate to mainland, yet can still work on the island. FYI, just check with some rentals in the city which… Read more »
Yes time is hard but definitely not hard for the corrupted because they can get bailed out just like EDL.
The LGR PR state government is helping the poor and it seem that some people do not want the help to go to these poor people. The reason most likely they could use it for some political mileage when GE campaign starts.
As for me instead of using car, I move around in motobike. Its convenient and save on petrol.
I also don’t agree with everything free. Take bus also want free kah ??? I don’t take bus, it is unfair to me.
I don’t see how it is unfair to you. The buses were bought using people’s money, the fuel is bought using the people’s money, likewise the driver’s salaries and the entire corporation. If they can afford it, I don’t see how that is unfair. If you are happy with Rapid’s and generally prasarana’s very good services than u should use the bus too. Like everyone else you too will have it free. If you are not satisfied or too find prasarana’s services to be too inefficient for you, then you have to pay to drive your own vehicle. It is… Read more »
Anil
Is your site hit by virus?
Why then all the thumbs-up and thumbs-down record were erased?
Can you reinstate them as it is a good indicator of rakyat’s feelings on issues you posted on your site.
Thanks.
No, not hit by virus, but I suspect hit by certain person(s) who seem to be manipulating the thumbs up/down.
So I have taken off that comment rating plugin and am now trying a different one – though in the process previous comment ratings have been erased.
Apologies for that, but that’s the price to pay for keeping one step ahead of the manipulator(s).
There are many cyber-bots around.
Otherwise how to get 3 million tweets in one minute to syiok Najib on Merdeka 55?
Anil, If I am not mistaken, the problems of your blog started after you change the system to word press. We can still thumb up and down on the same posting repeatedly after the computer have been switch off and on. In the yahoo and many other blog, once you have made a thumb up or down on that posting, you will not be able to thumb again even after you have switch off and restart the computer. As a result some political cyber trooper normally have 5 or 6 or more computer. After thumbing they close, switch on and… Read more »
I was always using wordpress. The problem is not with wordpress but the plugin I was using. The basic WordPress install does not come with a comment rating system.
Penang Government wanna pay RapidPenang RM10 million to run FREE buses during peak traffic hours (eg morning & evening rush hours) yet no response from Prasarana under Federal government ???
Car Plate Bidding Minister Kong no authority over Transport matter and awaiting his “boss” SPAD Syed Hamid to decide ????? or Gelugor Forex Minister to decide ????
Thanks to Anil & Azrai for highligting this matter – good for rakyat’s (especially retirees) pocket and environment (less polluting carbon in the air from ever increasing traffic) !!! The rakyat should now realize the genuine effort to overcome crazy traffic situation in Penang. If we use less private cars and resort to public transport (it’s catch 22 but there must be an urgency to start campaign for public efficiency), we can save up more money for more critical expenditure like nutritious food and education of children. I think we should change the mindsets of typical malaysians who associate car… Read more »
Feeder buses strategic transport solution may & could be good preparation for Penang to meet the demand for skilled workforce from MNCs looking to Malaysia as alternative relocation from Thailand.
Are we ready to retain & attract more talents to Penang?
Flood-hit companies in Thailand looking at Malaysia:
http://my.news.yahoo.com/flood-hit-companies-thailand-looking-malaysia-080605465.html