Speaking at a state-hosted forum on the future of transport in Penang, Chew said while LRT systems were often seen as a fix for urban congestion, they could only work if tied to good town planning that included effective land use, policy and long-term delivery.
“If you just offer an LRT system and do nothing else, you will fail,” the Royal Academy of Engineering fellow said at the forum held at Komtar.
Chew, who has worked on urban rail networks in Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, said both Hong Kong’s mass transit railway (MTR) and Singapore’s mass rapid transit (MRT) succeeded because they were supported by strong government policy and land control.
He said the Hong Kong government, for example, used the profits made from the increased value of its property surrounding its rail network to fund MTR development.
“They started thinking about property as the key driver. But this only worked because the state had firm control over property. They could plan rail and development together,” he said.
Chew said in Singapore, laws were passed to allow the state to acquire land around new MRT lines, making sure the public also gained from the investment.
“The thinking was that if the state is paying for the MRT, the public should get some of the benefit, not just private developers,” he said.
Shifting political winds
Penang transportation executive councillor Zairil Khir Johari said the LRT project had been delayed for years mainly due to shifting political winds.
“We spent many years in the wilderness. The monorail was approved years ago, and the airport expansion too … both were shelved for political reasons,” he said.
The federal government, under the late former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had mooted a monorail project, but it was shelved in 2008 due to changes in national priorities.
Zairil said the state government was therefore moving quickly now – while federal politics allowed it.
He said Penang had already started planning the LRT before receiving federal support, and even held advanced talks with the Asian Development Bank on funding, but had seen slow progress without federal approval.
“There are many ways to skin a cat. Of course, the cat becomes smaller without federal backing. But Penang will always find a way,” he said.
The Mutiara LRT line, which will run from Komtar to Bayan Lepas, with a spur line from the Macallum area to Butterworth, is now being built by the federal government through the transport ministry and MRT Corp.
Work on the RM17 billion, 29.5km project is expected to begin this year.