The Sarawak government has rejected the Land Public Transport Commission’s (SPAD) proposal of using diesel buses for the Stage Bus Service Transformation (SBST) programme. The programme will see the introduction of 130 buses covering 27 routes across the city, including Kota Samarahan, Batu Kawa, Samajaya, Santubong and Telaga Air.
According to reports by The Star and The Malaysian Insight, the state government said electric buses should be considered instead, in line with its focus on using clean energy for public transport.
Previously, Konsortium BBK (KBBK) was awarded RM204.9 million to carry out the SBST programme in Kuching and Samarahan Divisions in southern Sarawak. If the state government had accepted SPAD’s proposal, diesel buses (expected to cost RM600,000 each) would have begun servicing routes by the third quarter of this year.
“Nobody use smoky buses anymore. What would the environmentally-conscious tourists and foreign visitors say?” said Sarawak chief minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg. He added that rejecting SPAD’s proposal will see the transformation project be pushed back, but the introduction of electric buses could still happen within the next three years.
“We have deliberated on the matter and decided that all buses for public transportation will use clean energy. The higher cost of electric buses means that SPAD might allocate fewer buses for Kuching but the important part is that we are looking to cut urban pollution and become more environmentally friendly,” he stated.
Moving forward, there are also plans to introduce hydrogen-powered buses as part of a pilot programme to transport tourists around the city. “Before we commission the hydrogen buses, we have to build a filling station that will be located in Bintawa. We hope to roll out the hydrogen buses at the end of the year,” Abang Johari said.
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Spad is so bodoh. All over the world, diesel is being phased out cause it is toxic.
But in Malaysia, we are increasing our diesel vehicles. Simple logic. Still cannot understand.
RM1mil bus vs RM600k bus. SPAD aint bodoh but being practical. Up to state govs whether to take the advice or not. SPAD oso advice Sel gov to discuss and integrate their free bus with RAPID but they din. Now Sel free bus jalan jalan w/o passengers. So was SPAD bodoh?
They do not not buses running on Euro 2 diesel. Go to Singapore and find out the meaning of clean buses running on Euro 5 diesel.
Pfft! If the few buses runs too big an interval, swk pipu will giveup using those buses and then those shiny new EV buses will jalan jalan w/o passengers. So which is more harmful, hmm?
We must make Sarawak great again just like how we will make US great again.
Diesel buses are cheaper. Cheaper buses means more cost effective public transport so that users will not be unduly burdened.
Just look at the Sunway BRT system that’s fully equipped with BYD electric buses. So many complaints about how the fares are expensive, but when people point out that those BYD buses can cost at least RM 1 million people don’t want to believe.
This is why I hate Malaysians on the Internet. Only talk without facts and bash just for the sake of bashing.
Fully agree.
Sunway BRT more expensive because dumb SPAD or minister blindly sign the contract with Sunway Group which they inflated the cost as much as they could
Thats true… public amenities like transportation should be handled by the Govt… Fed or State thru GLCs… Should learn from the Putra/Star/KLStar LRT privatisation fiasco before Prasarana took over. Sunway knows if the venture collapse yet servicable to the public then at a certain point the Govt will bail them out and take over… and they skip off having made some extra cash.
Nope. The bus itself cost 2–3 million yuan in other countries.
No problem using diesel bus. Just regulate only Euro 5 diesel bus can be use. Low operation cost, low fare. Some folks in Sarawak do not have electricity in their house, want to talk about electric bus some more. Are Sarawak State Gov only focus on City bus? How about their old long distance bus between district? Come on, PAN Borneo coming soon. Electric bus can travel that far?
Fully agree. Beggars cant be choosers. Right now they dun even have proper public transports. What they need is more buses and frequent schedules to encourage more users.
Only then they can think of changing to EV. At half the projected units resulting in infrequent schedule will only doom this gud project.
Kudos to sarawak government for saying NO to idiots.
If fare expensive due to high operation cost, Sarawakian mau bayar ka?
Public transports > all
Naza Go Auto market leading in local electric buses. Not a glc but market changer.
https://paultan.org/2017/10/06/go-auto-to-deliver-its-first-electric-buses-by-end-2017/
End of 2017? Does it delivered as promised?
There’s nothing wrong with diesel, look at europe, they still using diesel.
at least one state government is being strict to implement new technology though I believe a lot of basic needs/utilities needs to be addressed first for this state
Praise sarawak government, Governments should be implement EV cars cheaply in east malaysia due to the eco environment there.
Gov not the one who make EV vehicle. You try ask those Company who make, are they willing to sell cheap. When Gov subsidies you said it is for crony company, when Gov open the business to all, u complaint mahal and want Gov to make it cheap. Which one do u want?
Interesting argument but diesel technology is a matured technology whereas electric buses are relatively new.
The real question is whether Kuching can build the infrastructure to support the electric buses ie. charging stations.
u need to start from somewhere. Better start now than later. With time the infra will come. It maybe limited now, down the road more will come.
The Sunway BRT is fully operated using electric buses, and people complain about how expensive the fares are.
If electric bus operations is considered to be expensive in a state with high median income such as Selangor, how do you think the situation would be like in Sarawak, where the median income is lower?
That BRT not conventional bus system plus those BRT use elevated road not normal road… Melaka have electric bus, Putrajaya oso have electric bus..why cant Sarawak.
Nope. The bus itself is exp, costing 2–3 million yuan in other countries. The high fares is to recoup this cost.
of cuz the bus is expensive nobody say it cheap..the one im comparing is EV bus using BRT system with EV bus using conventional system.. Obviously BRT EV bus using elevated system is more expensive.
What i understand, Sunway built the BRT at their own expense but have profit sharing on the running of BRT.
Electric and hydrogen-fuelled bus technology is still at an infancy. Most of these buses cost millions. And then, there’s a question of adequate charging infrastructure.
I think this state government is just being stupid to sacrifice more frequent buses for a so-called clean image in environment protection, at the same time forgetting so many areas being cleared for logging activities.
Syabas ! That’s what sarawakians want, autonomy governance.
Ohh putrajaya bagi bas elektrik, sarawak bagi bas diesel. Kalau sarawak sabah jangan berkira sangatlah oii. Untung nasib korang kat tangan sabah sarawak
aloo… kat putrajaya tu, bas elektrik dia ada 12 bijik jerr compared to 40 diesel buses. Tu pun Japan bagi free untuk testing. Lain kali jangan jadi keyboard warrior tapi tak pandai guna google untuk dapatkan info.
Talking about diesel, we Sarawakians here still lack of Euro 5 Diesel unlike you people in Peninsular Malaysia can enjoy.
Considering we have higher amount of pickup trucks & other 4×4 vehicles here, i cannot see the reason why until now the government doesn’t wanna introduce better grade of diesel fuel here in East Malaysia.
What kind of discriminatory decision is this???
Tanya fuel suppliers.
Seriously dude…? Why being hard on the Govt… ask your local vendor why they don’t bring them in. C’mon… not everything is handled by the Govt.
When Fed Gov want to help, Sarawakian want autonomy governance. When not get Euro 5 diesel, mad at Fed Gov pulak.. lol
Help what help? By giving us diesel buses which harm our health more? What silly comment is this???
You people in Peninsular Malaysia only take for granted while snatching resources from us East Malaysians!
Without us you people live in ancient kampungs tanam jagung lar bangang!
thumbs up to the state govt…..
They should use diesel hybrid. Best of both world.
Finally… a clear headed thinking person at the helm.. dunno what is SPAD thinking of.
Err, the viability of this project?
“We have deliberated on the matter and decided that all buses for public transportation will use clean energy. The higher cost of electric buses means that SPAD might allocate fewer buses for Kuching but the important part is that we are looking to cut urban pollution and become more environmentally friendly,”
Sooooo…this means fewer buses and fewer routes? In KL the average waiting time for a GO KL bus is around 15-20min, and they have loads of those buses. and that is a pretty long wait. If Sarawak wants to implement reduced numbers of electric buses the users can expect to wait how long? if its more than 30 mins then no one wants to use it.
Also Sarawak is not small…its pretty huge. they will need loads more buses..and also charging facilities. Maybe this can work if they limit the routes to only 3-4 routes and only serve major cities.(eg Kuching, Miri, Bintulu)
Im all for ‘green tech’ and such, but you got to think it realistically too, to get people on buses are easy, just have lots of route and more frequent buses. SPAD are not stupid enough to recommend the diesel buses, there must be a reason for the recommendation, (No of buses, Costs, routes, etc)
Abang Johari knows that once these buses are in, it will be there for more than 10 years bringing in it’s entire ecosystem of workshops for maintenance. By that time, the industry would have changed and probably lots of electric around. So why go for a bad start and upgrade later. He probably see into the future and work towards it rather than jump start with this quick dirty solution. So siapa yang berwawasan? SPAD pushing its diesel bus for a quick fix for the community or Captain Planet?
1 EV bus is slightly more exp than 2 diesel bus. That too w/o costing in charging infra. Basically, Sarawak will half their estimated fleet when going for EV. This leads to double the waiting period and half the bus availability. Will pipu still use it? Thats what SPAD is worried about.
Correction: *slightly cheaper* but with charging infra, cost will be up again.
The move seems to be more set on helping tourists and not the local public. Efforts to go green shud be focused on getting people on buses, not getting greener buses. The buses may burn oil but it reduces emissions that would have come from private vehicles and eases congestion. I’m living in kuching and I can confidently say that if u effectively service the few main routes north-south, congestion especially across the rivers can be dramatically halved. Thereafter, revenue from the service can be used to fund the electric bus initiation.
Fully agree. At least someone here talks sense.