I was one of the thousands of commuters in Kuala Lumpur dependent on the light rail transport system affected by the system breakdown on Friday, 6th October 2006. This letter which appeared the next day in the Star sums up quite succintly how many feel about the system(?)."Breakdown failure on operator’s part
FIRST-CLASS infrastructure, Third-World mentality. High-tech driverless Putra LRT, bottom-rung maintenance. It's sad.
Imagine this: Thousands of commuters during Friday morning rush hour. And the train system conveniently breaks down, again. Chaos results.
Are Malaysians surprised? No. That’s what makes the entire situation so wretched.
For the past five to six months, the LRT service has been disrupted about once a month. Every time it malfunctions, Putra staff will put up the sign “We are having an unavoidable technical problem”.
Many of us have travelled on the virtually trouble-free Singapore MRT.
It's simple. If you don’t maintain the trains, the system stalls.
I urge the Transport Minister to make the following changes:
1. Fire the top management in charge of Putra LRT. Constant system failure means failure on their part.
2. Fine the company RM1mil for every hour the LRT is down. It's a small sum to pay for delaying the thousands of people who would otherwise be working and contributing to the economy.
3. Display the LRT’s KPI. Show monthly statistics on system failure, late trains, Touch ’n Go breakdown, ticketing gate malfunction, air-conditioning failure in trains and stations. In this way, I'm sure Putra will do more to improve the system to save face.
4. Fire those who can’t meet these KPIs.
Drastic action is needed for a major change.
RADICALHOP,
Petaling Jaya."
I agree whole heartedly with the writer's suggestions but I doubt any of it will see the light of day any time soon. As it is, there will be an inquiry and it would be anyone's guess whether any action will be taken after that. The planners are never the ones who use the system. They are bureaucrats, pen pushers, cocooned in their air-conditioned offices dictating what is best for the rest of city. They must use the system too to see how viable or reliable it is in action. There is a huge difference between that lovely skecth on paper with reality.
1 comment:
nice observation on the putra line. it all goes back to the thinking & working culture of our country. some say mentality. very true. fr my experience, it's the tidak apa attitude & lack of vision & urgency. there r some who r pushing for change within. but change as we've always been hearing, comes fr the top. for that we can only pray that the top will have a sudden awakening. or we pray that the top people being replaced. with more effective ones that is. in the mean, as a purra line rider, i would go attend a seminar on urban-survival warrior-style. :-)
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