By Zareef Muzammil
SUBANG JAYA, Oct 14 — The daily ridership of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for the Sunway route has recorded an increase of 30 per cent to date, says Subang Jaya state assembly representative (ADUN) Michelle Ng.
She said the increase was due to the 20 per cent reduction of the fares that were implemented by Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd last November, reflecting the success in encouraging the public to take public transportation.
“Public transport should be the direction of the future, so with the increased mobility of vehicles rising from 10 million daily trips in 2010 to 32 millions trips by 2030, the roads will be more congested.
“The construction and expansion of roads in solving traffic woes would only reduce traffic for a certain period as the usage of cars increases. Therefore we are focusing our efforts in increasing the use of public transportation,” said Ng at the launch of a new LRT feeder bus route, Route T792, at the LRT USJ7 station, here today.
Also present at the launch were Rapid Bus executive officer Muhammad Yazurin Sallij and its chief operating officer Ku Jamil Zakaria.
The new route, which is a three-month pilot project starting tomorrow, will see the usage of three 12-meter feeder buses connecting the LRT USJ7 station to Pangsapuri SS19 through USJ 3 and 4.
It will also pass by two universities, Inti International College and SEGi College, and connects to several commercial centres, including SS15, Taipan, and Summit shopping mall,
The estimated duration of the route is 45 minutes with a 20-minute frequency.
Ng said this was to focus on the first and last-mile issue by establishing connectivity with walkways and bus routes.
“I am pleased that the Subang Jaya Municipal Council has allocated some funds to upgrade the walkways around the LRT USJ 7 and Taipan stations.
“The move by Rapid Bus to select Subang Jaya for this pilot project is also commended as it plans towards improving the feeder bus services,” she said.
Ng said she hopes to see a positive response from the public for the service to continue and new routes to be introduced.
Meanwhile, Yazurin Sallij said the three buses utilised for the route will feature a new look with “bus wrapping” to enable users to differentiate the buses from others.
He said the rebranding of the bus was inspired by the success achieved by the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) feeder buses, which had attracted the attention of the residents along the MRT route.
He said public feedback and data collected during the three months will be analysed for a project focusing on the first and last-mile concept as well as to study the best means to improve the LRT feeder bus services.
“This includes the service frequency for areas in Subang Jaya and Klang, as the number of public transport commuters, including feeder bus, Smart Selangor dan the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, is about 25,000 per day.
“We believe that Subang Jaya residents are ready to change their lifestyle and adjust themselves in taking the public transportation as it is more convenient,” he said.
