Commuters to blame

This news item that appeared in the Star 13 August 2007 caught my eye. Here is the full article.

"Commuters urged to be more prepared for Merdeka

By ELAN PERUMAL

POOR travel planning by commuters resulted in long queues and congestion at Putra LRT stations in KLCC recently.

There was nothing that Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RapidKL) could do about the situation since there was sudden surge in the number of commuters due to the Pikom PC Fair, said RapidKL rail operations division general manager Azmi Abdul Aziz.

He said the long queues and congestion were caused by commuters dependent on counters and vending machines to obtain tickets.

Azmi said there were not many people who took advantage of the monthly pass, prepaid travel cards and Touch&Go and the situation would not have been as bad if the majority of commuters had avoided obtaining tickets from the counters and vending machines.

According to him, RapidKL had done its best and even increased the counters from one to five and provided attendants offering change for those queuing up at vending machines.

“We feel sorry for the inconvenience caused but we can only improve the situation to a certain level as there were 3,000 commuters flocking the station.

“The situation lasted for six long hours and we had a tough time overcoming the long queues,” he said

He also thanked the commuters who had conducted themselves well as there were no untoward incidents reported at the time.

Azmi advised commuters not to be overly dependent on ticket counters and vending machines if they wished not to be caught in similar situations in the future.

For commuters who used the LRT on a daily basis, he said the monthly pass would be the best option since it was only being sold at RM90 with unlimited usage.

“Others can obtain prepaid tickets and Touch&Go cards from our counters so that they can go into train platforms without having to queue up for tickets.” he said

Azmi hoped that commuters would be more prepared for the upcoming Merdeka Day countdown event on Aug 30 and 31.

“We are expecting more than 100,000 people to commute on the LRT and we will do our best to improve the quality of service and the frequency of the trains,” he said."

The first paragraph itself made my blood boil, "Poor travel planning by commuters resulted in the long queues and congestion at Putra LRT stations recently?"

Were there enough signs to encourage commuters to use prepaid tickets and Touch & Go cards before they use the trains? Haven't the management learnt anything for the past ten odd years? Whenever there is a crowd pulling event near any of the stations, the crowd will be at least ten fold than the usual number. Don't tell me you have not prepared for that kind of numbers. Don't you want those numbers? Aren't those numbers that are keeping you in the black, I hope.

Please give the commuters some respect. We did plan our journey. Didn't we leave our cars and use the public transportation system as urged by all and sundry?