Suhaini Aznam (The Star)
Since the Government’s announcement of a RM10bil allocation to upgrade the Klang Valley transport system, various ‘experts’ have offered unsolicited advice. But according to the man in charge, the final route will be well plotted, Suhaini Aznam has the story.
KUALA LUMPUR, 24 Sept - FOLLOWING the crow’s direct flight path, urban commuters have found that their fastest way into the city is by light rapid transit (LRT). Speeding over traffic snarls on the highway, a total of 320,000 commuters take the line daily, most of them professionals and students.
The LRT and the monorail are the future. Congested Penang was recently allocated RM2.8bil for a second bridge and RM1.2bil for a light monorail system.
Of the RM10bil allocated to the Klang Valley under Budget 2007, RM7bil will be spent on extending existing lines to capture densely populated housing enclaves. The Kelana Jaya line will reach out to Subang Jaya and USJ; the Sri Petaling line to Puchong.
In addition, Syarikat Prasarana Nasional Bhd (SPNB) has also been tasked with building a totally new line to Kota Damansara. The routes are still on the drawing board. SPNB currently has 13 options for the Kelana Jaya line and 12 options for the Sri Petaling line. A finalised blueprint will only be out in October.
The Government's rationale is to draw at least 40% of the Klang Valley’s 4.7 million population to take public transport, putting it on par with other cities. Today, only 11% do, leading to Kuala Lumpur’s infamous inner city traffic jams. SPNB has initiated a very extensive ridership study, covering demographics, people’s priorities in public transport and a slew of technical factors.
“Our consultants sent out thousands of postcards to households in various areas to discover family size, number of vehicles owned, household incomes, occupations, points of origin and destinations, what is topmost in your mind when you want to travel,” said SPNB CEO Shaipuddin Shah Harun.
The raw data collated from surveys, journey simulations and traffic counts was an eye-opener: 65% of people travel mainly for work and an education. “This was very important in designing your line,” said Shaipudin. “Only 13% use it to go shopping per se.” To his surprise, pricing was not a large factor in customer preferences. Service issues were.
“I think people are willing to pay so long as the service is to their satisfaction,” said Shaipudin. The demographics revealed that 77% of the Klang Valley population earned between RM1,000 and RM4,000. The rest made above RM4,000, making the LRT affordable.
The consultants also did real time examinations: simulating bus journeys from USJ to Lot 10 took 2.5 hours maximum, regardless of the bus service; by car it took roughly an hour, both through and bypassing the toll. “So there is a need for people to get into something more efficient,” noted Shaipudin.
Traffic counts along the perimeter of the city revealed that “only 40% of LRT commuters were male, probably because part of the male population ride bikes.” “The bikers appear to be a bit resilient to change. Cheap to maintain (and) low in fuel consumption, we don’t think the 900,000 motorbikes will disappear overnight.”
“As a rule of thumb, we think that people don’t want to travel longer than 30 minutes on the train to town,” said Shaipudin. The travel time on the extended lines would add between 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the chosen route. As to noise pollution, residential areas, schools and places of worship influence system options.
“Some trains are almost noiseless, such as the maglev (magnetic levitation) where there is no contact at all.” “Sometimes if you build the guideway (to support the) rail over the road, it has a kind of tunnelling effect or a roofing effect on the sound of the traffic below.
Without the guideway, the sound could dissipate up to the sky,” explained Shaipudin. “Whereas the guideway “would amplify and divert the traffic sound sideways so the neighbours along the alignment would have more noise to contend with.” Rivers were avoided as much as possible. “And you don't put a pier right in the middle of the river because it could cause floods upstream.
There could be a backwash, like the effect of a (partial) dam.” Soil conditions were another factor. The types of subterranean materials in the proposed areas under study showed up granite, quartz and limestone. “In the Subang-USJ areas, the whole stretch is granite,” he said.
SPNB will also try to avoid building through tunnels as it could double or treble construction costs. “Passing though private land would mean having to buy over houses and resettle people and squatters,” said Shaipudin. Building along existing highways was thus the preferred option.
Technology today is so advanced, it can really minimise disruption to traffic and movement of people without disturbing the foundations of existing highways, said Shaipudin. The only catch is the price. SPNB is buying up to 140 train coaches for the heavily congested Kelana Jaya line, “running in a mix of two-cars and four-cars, depending on travel patterns and demand,” explained Shaipudin. For this, an actual count of people boarding and alighting was done at each station.
The Star line, with 180 coaches, today has ample room to take in more people. It serves 150,000 commuters daily, while the former Putra line has only 70 coaches serving 170,000 passengers daily. SPNB is also budgeting for 140 coaches for the Kota Damansara line, which it aims to make “as easily integrated as possible with existing lines” in terms of rail gauge. The link-up point, however, is still unknown.
“The guiding principle is it should be integrated with an existing (station). It should not be on a stand-alone basis. It should make full use of existing infrastructure. “In Sentral, for example, there may not be any more space for us to come in. The line is finite. “And Jamek is already quite congested with the Star and Putra lines coming together.
The Jamek station is peculiar in that despite the intersecting lines, there is no common station. Urban transport is a total concept; SPNB has ordered 1,130 new buses. Special bus lanes would be an enticement but these are difficult to designate along Kuala Lumpur's older roads.
As bidding for tenders picks up, Shaipudin is “fully supportive of local content” while being “very pragmatic” about foreign expertise. Local companies were more than competent to do civil works but “nobody makes trains yet in this country to that level of sophistication.
Expectations are higher and safety (standards) as well.” Viability, global competition, returns on investment and economies of scale, were all important considerations, he cautioned. “Half of our new fleet are from China. Good price and fast delivery.” Malaysian companies could deliver “parts of the train, maybe: the flooring, the seating, handrails. But the power trains, the wheel sets, the electronics... for the train management system, I wouldn't want to risk people's lives.”
Source:
The Star: Putting the best route forward (Sept 24, 2006)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Putra LRT & STAR LRT Station Exchange at USJ/Putra Heights
Kelana Jaya LRT Line and Sri Petaling LRT line will stop at Putra Heights.
For residents and business community in USJ20 and USJ21, there will be 2 stops namely USJ20 Junction and LDP Junction available at their service before the last stop at Putra Heights where the commuters can switch to bus services or change the train heading towards Ampang.
Here are 2 maps I downloaded from the Internet. One from Prasarana Website and another from Newspaper.
For residents and business community in USJ20 and USJ21, there will be 2 stops namely USJ20 Junction and LDP Junction available at their service before the last stop at Putra Heights where the commuters can switch to bus services or change the train heading towards Ampang.
Here are 2 maps I downloaded from the Internet. One from Prasarana Website and another from Newspaper.
LRT extension project still under study, says Tee Keat
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 21, 2008): Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB) is still carrying out a land and engineering study on the proposed extension of the light rail transit (LRT) system in the Klang Valley – to Puchong and Subang Jaya, Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Replying to Tony Pua (DAP-PJ Utara), Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said the projects will be implemented once the study is completed, adding they will be carried out by way of privatisation.
Datuk Ong Tee Keat "The Star LRT extension project will involve an additional 16km from Sri Petaling station to USJ/Puchong, ending in Putra Heights, involving 12 new stations.
"The Putra LRT extension project will also run an additional 16km from Kelana Jaya station to Subang Jaya and end at Putra Heights too, involving 12 new stations as well," he said.
To a supplementary question from Pua on the setting up of a public transport commission as announced by the government before, Ong said the matter has yet to be finalised.
Pua had asked whether the commission will be headed by the Transport Minister or its responsibilities will be divided between the 13 existing agencies related to transportation.
Meanwhile, Ong said the government will expedite the construction of a special motorcycle lane to lower the risk of road accidents involving motorcyclists and pillion riders.
The special lane would separate motorcyclists from other bigger vehicles so that the risk of road accidents would be reduced.
"Based on a study conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), the special motorcycle lane could decrease fatalities among motorcyclists and pillion riders by up to 80% because they would no longer be exposed to bigger vehicles.
"The results from the MIROS study shows that with the special lane, the government will be able to save six lives for every Ringgit invested," he said, in response to a question from Dr Lo Lo Mohammed Ghazali (Pas-Titiwangsa) who queried on the steps taken to handle the increase in road accidents among motorcyclists and pillion riders, especially since the hike in fuel price.
Ong said the government would also be taking intervention steps, besides carrying out various campaigns advocating and advising them to wear and fasten safety helmets properly to reduce road accidents.
Replying to Tony Pua (DAP-PJ Utara), Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said the projects will be implemented once the study is completed, adding they will be carried out by way of privatisation.
Datuk Ong Tee Keat "The Star LRT extension project will involve an additional 16km from Sri Petaling station to USJ/Puchong, ending in Putra Heights, involving 12 new stations.
"The Putra LRT extension project will also run an additional 16km from Kelana Jaya station to Subang Jaya and end at Putra Heights too, involving 12 new stations as well," he said.
To a supplementary question from Pua on the setting up of a public transport commission as announced by the government before, Ong said the matter has yet to be finalised.
Pua had asked whether the commission will be headed by the Transport Minister or its responsibilities will be divided between the 13 existing agencies related to transportation.
Meanwhile, Ong said the government will expedite the construction of a special motorcycle lane to lower the risk of road accidents involving motorcyclists and pillion riders.
The special lane would separate motorcyclists from other bigger vehicles so that the risk of road accidents would be reduced.
"Based on a study conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), the special motorcycle lane could decrease fatalities among motorcyclists and pillion riders by up to 80% because they would no longer be exposed to bigger vehicles.
"The results from the MIROS study shows that with the special lane, the government will be able to save six lives for every Ringgit invested," he said, in response to a question from Dr Lo Lo Mohammed Ghazali (Pas-Titiwangsa) who queried on the steps taken to handle the increase in road accidents among motorcyclists and pillion riders, especially since the hike in fuel price.
Ong said the government would also be taking intervention steps, besides carrying out various campaigns advocating and advising them to wear and fasten safety helmets properly to reduce road accidents.
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