Loke said it is more important to educate and to provide warnings while the government promotes the use of the women-only coaches.
“Prasarana has stationed auxiliary police officers at the MRT stations to ensure that only female passengers enter these coaches,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
“Sometimes, members of the public would also reprimand male passengers if they are seen entering the coaches.”
However, Loke said the compliance rate was also high. “When most of them (male passengers) realise that it is a women-only coach, they will exit it,” he said.
He was replying to a supplementary question from Shaharizukirnain Abd Kadir (PN-Setiu) on the monitoring of the women-only coaches introduced on the Kajang MRT Line.
Shaharizukirnain also asked if the government plans to increase the number of such coaches.
Loke said it is essential to ensure the initiative runs smoothly before considering any expansion.
“We also need to strike a balance. If we add women-only coaches, it will reduce the number of coaches for male passengers. This will create problems,” he said.
A trial run for designated women-only coaches for the Kajang MRT Line began at the end of September. Loke previously said that if the initiative went well, the ministry would extend this to train services on other lines.
However, netizens have been complaining on social media about male passengers seated in these coaches during non-peak hours, despite pink signs clearly stating they are reserved for women.
Prasarana to start working on open payment system next year
Loke also said Prasarana will commence design and development works for its planned open payment system in March.
“Prasarana will take approximately 11 months, until February 2025, to complete 50% of the ticket gates at each station to accept the open payment.
“By August 2025, all gantries at every station will be ready. Further expansion may include additional payment methods like QR codes in subsequent phases,” he said.
Wong Chen (PH-Subang) had enquired about the progress of Prasarana’s plan to increase payment options for its services, including LRT, MRT and RapidKL buses.