Moaz Yusuf Ahmad explains why Perbadanan Putrajaya should stop calling for a monorail system in the city.
PPj needs to stop calling for the Putrajaya monorail project to be revived
It has come again – the call from Perbadanan Putrajaya to revive the Putrajaya Monorail has become an annual event for those who follow public transport in Malaysia.
And, like every year the call is the same – without the monorail Putrajaya will have traffic gridlock. Without the monorail the roads & highways leading to Putrajaya will be congested. Etc. So rather than writing a new response, I thought I would just look back through letters that I have written in the past about the Putrajaya Monorail and simply recycle the reasons.
Here goes: There is no demand for the Putrajaya monorail that buses cannot handle. Repeat: there is no demand for the Putrajaya monorail that buses cannot handle. Repeat: there is no demand for the Putrajaya monorail that buses cannot handle.
The issue is Putrajaya is not traffic congestion inside the city. The issue is the number of people who continue to drive to Putrajaya because:
1. Malaysians are used to driving and therefore think it is easier to drive and double park.
2. The main ways to get to Putrajaya using public transport (like the KLIA Transit or RapidKL E1) are based in KL – but not everyone is located in KL.
3. Taxi services in from Putrajaya Sentral are costly (RM9 coupon fare to the Treasury Building) – and then you have to get a taxi back – but there are no taxis cruising the streets.
4. Bus services in Putrajaya are considered ‘unavailable’ because the information (routes, schedules) is not communicated to people before they get into their cars and start driving into Putrajaya.Any attempt at getting people to use the park & ride or use the buses from Putrajaya Sentral will continue to fail as long as people feel that they ‘have to’ drive to Putrajaya because they are not confident in the buses – and just building the monorail will not change this in any way.
Last year I stated that the operator of NadiPutra needed to operate buses linking various towns (Sepang, Cyberjaya, Seremban, Kajang, KL, Dengkil) so that people would not need to drive to Putrajaya. This proposal was rejected by the operator, saying that their mandate was Putrajaya and Putrajaya alone.
Last year I stated that the operator of NadiPutra needed to get information online and use social networking – that was promised but never delivered.
And as expected, the call to revive the Putrajaya monorail comes once again.
Perhaps new SPAD COO Azhar Ahmad, fresh from his innovative 4-year tenure at RapidPenang, can make a difference here. He could convince NadiPutra to expand their operations to service the entire Langat Valley (rather than just Putrajaya) – allowing them to reach more customers. And most importantly, he could find ways to get customers to use NadiPutra – not by calling for a monorail or LRT, but just making the bus service more reliable & ensuring that existing and potential bus users get the information that they need.
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My view would be monorail should be built now. We should not wait when the place is crowded, then only we start to think of solutions. Our planning for Putrajaya is for future, 10-20 years from now. The city needs alternative mode of transportation and the population will grow once the facilities and infrastructure is put in place. The structure for the monorail is there, why don’t complete it. Today, the cost may be RM400-500 million, if we delay it further, the cost may increase to double. We should spend one-off for this infrastructure development.
Just to add something from my experience living and commute to work by Nadi Putra buses. First of all, I would like to say Nadi Putra buses serve almost the whole Putrajaya comprehensively. However, it is hampered by the third class mentality of the drivers. Some of them can be rude and unfriendly. Punctuality is also an issue too. They have a lot of buses at their disposal and the original plan is to have 15 minutes frequency on every route. However, under normal condition, the existing frequency is 30 minutes. Things just got worse during Hari Raya holiday every… Read more »
Do not dump rubbish/debris here
How big is PutraJaya compared to Singapore? If Singapore can have an efficient bus and taxi service (besides its super efficient MRT) , why can’t the same service be improved for small area like PutraJaya. Bear in mind that PutraJaya is supposedly to be a well planned city, with overseas visits and studies by the government planners. Or, these planners shied away to learn from the Singapore planners!!
Learn from the success of Singapore’s MRT system, and also learnt from the debacle and failure of Melaka monorail.
Emulate the successful and do not repeat a mistake.
Penang Rapid owed its success to the first COO, Mr Douglas David, who was responsible for the successful roll out of buses and routes for the company.
Why M did not mention Putrajaya and transportation in his Memoirs. Buy British last but Proton first? No matter how nice is the place but as a new kampong, it screw up. Cannot even introduce a shuttle bus for this kampong as compare to Penang. Where the money goes?
I don’t know. It already seems like a regrettably themed Disneyland – perhaps a Monojaya Putrarail would be ‘in keeping’?
No project, no money to grease the cronies ! Got it ?