“I told Prasarana that we have to also look at not just (being) a single operator, but working with other operators,” Loke said on BFM’s The Breakfast Grille this morning.
He was responding to a question on how public transport ridership could be increased given the lack of first and last-mile connectivity.
Loke said allocations to purchase buses had been made in tandem with projects like expanding the MRT system.
“But probably the buses are not well run,” he said.
“As I mentioned in Parliament, only half of the buses in the current fleet are operational. That is something we have to admit.
“My next focus will be pushing Prasarana to improve bus services.”
On June 7, the transport ministry said only 900 of the 1,757 buses under Rapid Bus were actively operating. Loke said this was because 45% of the buses were more than 10 years old, The Star reported.
Bring back minibuses?
Loke said he was open to the possibility of a mini-bus system run by private operators, adding that residents from Petaling Jaya met him last week to propose such a system.
He said he was agreeable to the idea, and such services should not be the government’s responsibility alone.
“So, why don’t we bring back some of the private operators? With them running some of the routes, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel and compete with each other,” he said.
Operating agreements
Separately, Loke said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s operating agreements (OA 2023) have been negotiated, although some technical issues still have to be ironed out.
“(The matter) is now with the attorney-general’s chambers (AGC), we just have to finalise it,” he said.
Loke said he is “pushing” for the agreements to be signed as soon as possible.
In February, MAHB obtained in-principle approval from the government under the OA 2023 to operate, manage, maintain and develop 39 airports and short take-off and landing airports (STOLports) until 2069.
MAHB said the material terms of the OA 2023 enabled it and the government to have flexibility in the method of funding airport development costs by either using government allocations through development expenditure, or through any suitable investment recovery model mechanism.