Gov’t committed to improving public bus service

KUALA LUMPUR: As long as the Government provides public transport services, people will take public transport, Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said today.

Speaking at a press interview at the SPAD headquarters, Mohd Azharuddin said the bus services in Klang Valley had to “keep up” with infrastructure developments in public transport such as the ongoing MRT and LRT projects.

He said SPAD had several plans and programs to raise the standard of the bus service: the Interim Stage Bus Support Fund (ISBSF) to subsidise bus operations, the Stage Bus Service Transformation (SBST) programme to determine the operating costs of the bus service providers, as well as installing bus stop information panels in bus stops around Klang Valley.

“Apart from that, we are also in the midst of developing mobile applications in order for customers to plan their journey.

“The government is very committed to improving public transport services. Our aim is for public transport to be affordable and for it to be ‘green’, where there will be less cars on the road,” Mohd Azharuddin said.

He pointed out that there were approximately 450,000 people who utilised public transport during peak hours, and that SPAD’s goal would be to achieve the 500,000 mark by the end of 2016. He added that 20 per cent of the people who take any form of land transport currently utilise public transport.

“By 2030, we aim to have 40 per cent of people (who utilise any form of land transport) using public transport.

“We know that the business has been unsustainable, the bus service has not been good; hence a revamp is needed.”

The key things, he said, were that the bus service had to be efficient and fares had to be affordable.

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