DAP has doubts on the BRT system plan
Published on: Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: DAP Sabah raised concerns on the proposed elevated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, questioning its impact on citizens in the State Capital.Its Publicity Secretary Phoong Jin Zhe said the proposal, revealed by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, would add unnecessary cost to the contruction as proven by a similar elevated BRT system introduced in the Sunway area in Selangor.The system cost about RM634 million for mere 5.4km elevated lane for BRT, causing an exorbitant fare at RM1 per kilometre which is way too costly to ordinary people.
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"As a result, the ridership of Sunway BRT dropped significantly 60 per cent after a two-month free period since it was implemented in August 2015. "Furthermore, current ridership of 256 per hour is only around 10 per cent of the initial projected ridership which is 2400 per hour," he said.Phoong said high construction cost would eventually influence fare structure which could affect its future operation, thus stressing the mistake or failure cannot be repeated on KK BRT."While we are in the dark how the BRT would look like, what is the planned route and how many stations and buses will be ready, I think the public deserves more details before the implementation to ensure its cost can be controlled and the service beneficial to the people."
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He believed the KK BRT should be built at-grade or at ground level like most BRT systems in the world since it would drastically reduce the construction cost and priority should be on increasing the number of bus and improving the quality of the services.He agreed that, technically speaking, the dedicated bus lane for BRT can be turned into LRT in the future, but believed a feasibility study for LRT or Trams should be started earlier and planning should start now.
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Phoong said the ground level BRT system could be also turned into ground level Light Rail system such as the one in Sydney and Kao Shiung."KK's population grows faster than national average and as a result, the number of vehicles is rapidly increasing and there is an urgent need for public transportation system here," he said.Phoong also noted the proposed two BRT routes in KK will not cover highly populated residential areas such as Luyang.He also doubted Rahman's intention who announced these details at the Umno Sepanggar annual convention, saying the BRT and four flyovers in Sepanggar are being used as BN's election pledge and it would be another vote-fishing tactic by BN.He reminded Rahman that BRT was supposed to start construction within the period from 2015 to 2020 according to Greater KK plan.However, despite the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announcing it during 2016 budget speech, it is still being delayed. "It is not only disappointing, but it might delay the process to meet the requirement of public transport in KK. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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