Referring to statistics provided by the transport ministry on the daily ridership of the LRT, monorail and KTM Komuter for the period beginning January 2014 to June 2017, and the new MRT Subang Jaya-Kajang (SBK) line over the past 10 months, the Serdang MP said the authorities must explain the drop.
“How can they explain the decrease in overall ridership despite the opening of the Sunway BRT, the LRT extension and the MRT Line 1?” he asked, before giving his view that the the main reason could be that the cost of taking these trains is not necessarily cheaper than driving.
“It costs RM9 for a trip from Puchong to Sunway via the Sunway BRT or RM18 for a return trip.
“Throw in the parking at the LRT station (RM4) and fuels costs, it is estimated that it would cost RM25 per day to take the LRT compared with RM10 to drive (including toll costs and free parking at his office),” Ong said, referring to a commuter who had written to a local daily about how expensive it is to use public transport.
He added that the daily ridership on the Kelana Jaya LRT line, Ampang LRT line, KTM Komuter and KL Monorail in the second quarter of 2017 are less than the daily ridership figures for the same period in 2015, just before the launch of the Sunway BRT.
“Kelana Jaya LRT daily ridership was 228,763 in Q2 2015 but had dropped to 217,383 in Q2 2017 despite the opening of the Sunway BRT in 2015, the LRT extension in 2016 and Phase 1 of the Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT line in 2017,” Ong said, referring to the RM634 million Sunway BRT which was launched in June 2015.
“Daily ridership on both LRT lines, the monorail and the KTM Komuter dropped significantly from Q4 2015 to Q1 2016 because of a significant fare hike for the LRT as well as the KTM Komuter.
“Daily ridership figures have yet to recover from this steep fare hike despite the subsequent opening of the LRT extension in the middle of 2016.”
Justifying his argument on the issue of the high cost of using public transport, Ong said the Sunway BRT daily ridership figures were 11,295 and 12,372 in June and July 2015, respectively, when the service was free.
“The ridership figure then plunged to 4,616 in August 2015 when fares were introduced which cost, on average, RM1 per km for a 5.4km BRT route.
“The high fares charged were even critiqued by the Sunway chairman, Jeffrey Cheah,” he said.
Lack of impact from MRT-SBK line
Elaborating on the lack of impact of the MRT-SBK line, Ong said within the first six months of this year, the use of public rail transport did not increase within the city as one would expect with more people coming into the city via the MRT.
Ths is based on the first phase of the MRT from Sungei Buloh to Jalan Semantan, which was launched in December 2016.
“KTM Komuter daily ridership of 106,337 in Q3 2016 (before the opening of Phase 1 of the MRT Line 1) was higher than the daily ridership of 104,978 in Q2 2017.
“KL Monorail also experienced a steady decline in its daily ridership from a high of 71,623 in Q4 2014 to a low of 48,202 in Q2 2017,” he said.
He added that even the MRT daily ridership had dropped from 16,368 in Q1 2017, which included the Jan 1-16 free trial period, to 12,622 in Q2 2017.
Ong said however, the key indicator will come when the third quarter (Q3) 2017 daily ridership figures are released later this year.
“I expect there to be a significant increase in the passenger numbers for the LRT and MRT because of the half price ‘offer’ during the SEA games leading up to Merdeka Day and also the opening of the full MRT Line 1 from Sungai Buloh all the way to Kajang.
“However, we should take these ridership figures with a pinch of salt. This is because a more realistic gauge of daily ridership would be the Q4 2017 figures when the half price discounts have been taken away,” he said.
“This will be the period when the people can more accurately estimate if it is worthwhile for them to take public rail transportation instead of using their own vehicles.”
He called for the government to make public transport more affordable by introducing monthly train and bus passes and also introducing better accessibility in the last mile between stations and residential areas.
“Spending money on these projects is the easy part. Getting people to take the trains and buses is another story altogether,” Ong said.