City taxis pick up from KLIA

On Wednesday, it was reported that taxi services at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will be expanded, under a new system to allow city taxis to pick up passengers.

The two-tier system featuring airport limousines and city taxis is to reduce the waiting period for passengers to under 10 minutes (previously 30 minutes to an hour). Demand for budget taxis, made up about 74% of all taxi demands at KLIA.

[KVMRT: Surprisingly, the limousines is far from reaching the demands which results to long wait.]

SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar at KLIA.

The airport receives about 9.3 million passengers yearly and is estimated to serve between 4,000 and 5,000 taxi trips daily.

Welcoming move: City cabs waiting for passengers at Level One of the KLIA main terminal building.

How to get a metered taxi at KLIA.
Step one: Passengers will be required to buy a RM2 coupon before they can join the queue to hire a metered city cab from the airport.

Step two: Proceed to Level One of the KLIA main terminal building to take a metered taxi.

Step three: Taxi marshals will check the coupons at the door and assign passengers to the taxi bays accordingly.

Article read: From tomorrow, city cabbies can pick up passengers from KLIA (The Star)

Impression of Klang Valley MRT station

KVMRT has come across interesting artist impression of few Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit stations.

Impression of Pasar Seni MRT station

The following is the walkway from Ampang Park LRT station for the Kelana Jaya Line. The design used in it is according to the existing station design.

Walkway from Ampang Park LRT station.

The escalator and stairway to road level

Concourse level of Ampang Park LRT station

Prasarana should into refurbishing all the LRT stations in terms of design and look as a whole. Proper choice of lighting, floor tiles are to be taken into consideration. Besides, electronic advertisement board along the wall of station could refresh the dull look of the station.

All images used in this post belongs to Mohamad Atif Mohamad Nadzir http://www.flickr.com/people/atifnadzir/

Social problem Pasar Seni bus hub

The Star covered a story on "Homeless people and foul stench greet commuters daily at Pasar Seni bus hub"

Commuters making their way from the Pasar Seni LRT station to board buses at the terminal are subjected to the unbearable stench of urine as well as the sight of homeless people sleeping at the seating area meant for passengers.

A homeless man climbing up towards the Pasar Seni LRT station after collecting discarded clothes from the Klang river bank.

When the station opens every morning, security personnel have to ask them to move away from the stairs to avoid blocking the way of people entering and exiting the station.

Although the security personnel have asked them to move away from the area many times, the homeless keep coming back, even more so now that the bus hub has reopened after being closed for upgrading works last year.

Don’t mind the noise: A homeless man sleeping under an escalator at the Pasar Seni LRT station.

RapidKL spokesman Azhar Ghazali said although RapidKL regularly notified DBKL about the homeless, the problem remained unresolved.

“Several operations were carried out and the homeless sent to welfare homes but when one group is taken away, another group turns up,” he said.

“Maybe we need to work with the relevant parties to find a long-term solution to the problem,” he said.

Airport Coach expands to Seremban

The route of express bus that is most profitable with highest frequency is none other than Kuala Lumpur - Seremban, vice versa.

Previously, two companies which are SKS KL and Suasana Edaran serve the route. However recently, Airport Coach joins the two rivals. They received a permission to run between Bahau - Seremban - Kuala Lumpur.

A reverse takeover was completed on November 2013, where operation is absorbed to Airport Coach.

The new livery of Suasana Edaran

Airport Coach is the sole operator for KLIA to KL Sentral. The bus company runs daily service with affordable prices and frequent service.

Open tender bus routes

Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) announced that private stage bus companies will be able to bid for routes via an open tender system from April.

The routes in Negri Sembilan, Pahang and Perlis are expected for firms to bid over. It includes Port Dickson, Bentong and Perlis.

This system is said to be modelled after London's public transport model; where an authority would tender routes to private firms and make sure that standards were met.

Further details of the tender include: some high-traffic routes may be operated by two bus firms, have to follow strict schedules to prevent service clashes and Government-owned transport companies such as Prasarana would not be part of the tender unless it was necessary.

[KVMRT: Obviously SPAD has put an end of monopoly for lucrative routes that been a problem. It is also a better plan than just bailing out private bus firms, e.g Cityliner in Negri Sembilan.]