Commuters happier with public transport
KUALA LUMPUR: The overall customer satisfaction index (CSI) for public transport last year went up by six per cent to 90 per cent compared with in 2016, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said yesterday.
SPAD chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said more commuters chose public transport as it was efficient and cost-effective.
“The percentage of respondents who said they were ‘very satisfied’ with public transport increased by 17 per cent to 31 per cent last year, compared with 14 per cent in 2016.
“The likelihood of someone continuing to use public transport also increased by three per cent from 78 per cent (in 2016) to 81 per cent last year,” he said at a media briefing on the 2017 Land Public Transport Report Card.
He said the average daily ridership of rails and buses in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley saw an upward trend of 3.7 per cent last year.
“The number of average daily ridership of rail and bus last year was at 1,206,111 compared with 1,162,717 in 2016.”
Average daily rail ridership in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley increased 7.5 per cent to 694,057 from 645,601 in 2016.
“The increase was due to the full opening of the 51km-long Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line on July 17.
“The Kelana Jaya LRT (Light Rail Transit) line led the growth, with an increase of seven per cent, or 272,684 average daily ridership, last year compared with 254,854 in 2016.”
However, the KTM Komuter
service saw a 14.5 per cent decline in ridership due to the Klang Valley Double Track rehabilitation, which affected frequency.
There was also a downtrend for monorail, with a reduction of 23.5 per cent due to the removal of five four-car train sets.
SPAD had tasked Prasarana to remedy this, Azharuddin said.
For average daily bus ridership in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley, he said there was a nominal drop of one per cent, which was attributed to a modal shift as a result of the opening of MRT Line 1 and the increased popularity of e-hailing services.
For KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS) and Intercity Rail, he said ridership rose 14.2 per cent, from 17,367 in 2016 to 19,835 last year.
“ETS is a popular mode of intercity transport and demand has increased significantly by 16.7 per cent last year.”
He said RM1.1 billion had been allocated to buy 19 new ETS trains by the end of next year.