Prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has just announced the 12th Malaysia Plan (Rancangan Malaysia Ke-12 or RMK-12), a five-year guide for the country’s development. In it, the government has both reviewed the nation’s performance in line with the 11th plan and proposed several measures to address the biggest issues, including in the area of transportation.
Here, we’re focusing on Malaysia’s public transportation, which has seen sweeping development over the past five years, such as the introduction of the first Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line (Kajang Line) and the extension of the Kelana Jaya and Ampang/Sri Petaling Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines. Despite this, Malaysia failed to reach the 40% public transport modal share target last year; it was last recorded at just 21% in 2018.
The government listed a number of reason for this – inadequate connectivity, lack of accessibility and reliability of services, the reluctance of the public to switch from private vehicles and, of course, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poor first- and last-mile connectivity between different modes of transport is said to be a particular pain point, hampering seamless travel.
The local public transport system is also said to suffer from low On Time Performance (OTP), long journey times and lack of holistic travel demand management, affecting its efficiency and reliability. All this has contributed to an underutilisation of public transport, below the government’s target.
Another huge contributor was Malaysia’s relatively low cost of car ownership, which has made the public reluctant to switch from private vehicles to public transport – likely exacerbated by the pandemic. The number of registered vehicles has shot up by around six per cent per annum, rising from 20.2 million in 2010 to 30 million vehicles in 2018. The ratio of vehicles to population stood at 0.9 in 2018, making Malaysia one of the highest in the region in this regard. So much for our “high car prices”, eh?
It’s not all bad news, however. The government trumpeted the success of KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS), which was introduced in 2010 and stretches from Gemas in Negeri Sembilan and Padang Besar in Perlis. Daily ridership doubled from 5,500 in 2015 to 11,000 just two years later and was targeted to hit 12,000 by December 2020 with up to 44 trips a day.
To help with this, KTM added nine new train sets equipped with business class coaches in 2019 and will extend the services up to Johor Bahru once the Gemas-Johor Bahru Double Track project is completed in 2023. This will effectively link up the north and south of Peninsular Malaysia along the west coast, improving connectivity and providing a more comfortable journey for long-distance rail passengers.
Low public transport utilisation is a serious problem, which is why RMK-12 also includes a number of initiatives to fix this by providing affordable, reliable and seamless mobility in the near future. The government wants to provide a more accessible and integrated transport system and reduce the nation’s dependence on private vehicles. The latter will include measures such as limiting parking spaces and imposing higher parking charges in city centres.
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nope. i think its the other way round. the existing public transport network are disconnected, not so reliable & not that convenient to promote high utilization. people needed own cars because they cant rely on public transport.
If it were true, lot more people would be owning motors and not cars. The fact that our car ratio per head is fantabulously high even compared to Western countries clearly shows the myth of our “high car prices”. Breaking down the figures are even more stark, nearly 50% are from non-national brands and those P1 & P2 buyers apparently are affording the bells & whistles with highest safety spec variant according to Paul Tan research. Are cars unaffordable to us? All the evidences showed otherwise, and hence why public transport usage is super low.
dude stop living in ur own bubble…u think everywhere got connected with public transport?lrt, mrt etc all concentrated in inner city center, leaving others no option but to use own vehicle
i also own motors but with msia extreme rain season it’s limited used only if im ride alone, not with partner or family.
That is because when planners put stations up at ideal catchment spots, up comes the neighbourhood movements & SJWs & aspiring politicians & ur unker & grandma coming to protest and petition to the mass media & viral on social media and putting roadblocks on land acquisitions for stations & tracks, and real roadblocks to project sites, so much so that MRT Corp prefers to shift stations & line to far less ideal spots. Take Bandar Utama station for example, originally to straddle BU1 & BU2 making it easier for pedestrian use but end up moved above the highway with such a long walkway that you’d prefer to drive instead coz BU folks protested the original alignment. That is not planning haphazardly but protesting haphazardly that got us where we are today. Selfish people are living in their cosh bubbles, you try taking public transport like me and see how much better it would be if planners got their way.
I have to hand it to you, MRT User. Yours is the kind of confident stupidity JKOM operatives could only seethe in envy.
Cara too cheap in msia. Gotta imposed higher excise tax n SST..
Of course, it is true. It is so inconvenient to wait for the bus. The bus takes 15mins- 2 hours to arrive. Then the bus stop flooded when rain is pouring down. The pedestrian walkway is disconnected, somehow we need to run across a busy road. Walking alongside the road could be dangerous with a rampage mat rempit robbing case. Those who suffered at the hand of our bad public transport will surely know what I meant. Who will pay us when the company deducts our salary because we are late? Worse, we got a warning letter for being late to work. Please go refer to Singapore, they have a bus passing through every 10-15 minutes. The bus must be subsidized by the government to promote ridership. You cannot rely on customers to slowly choose to ride the bus to increase the frequency of rides. You need to build up the confidence level first which you failed to do since Merdeka. It’s going to be hard. Do you really think if people could save money by taking public transport, they would choose to buy a car? See Singapore, please. Open your eyes.
Singapore made it work because planners got their way, the ret just shaddup and accept it eventually people are used to it. Here people have too much say about everything and making things not ideal. You want to know why they have buses every 10-15 minutes? Because mostly are driven by Malaysian bus drivers, we are shortage of bus drivers which caused long waiting times due to uncompetitive wages & passengers treating them like sub humans. Still want to blame planners kah?
First of all Malaysia has one of the highest bike usage of all time. Also safety is a big priority for most people? Bike enthusiasts can get over this, but no average joe is going to happily let their kids get a bike as a first means of transport (unless necessary).
In fact more and more parents are getting increasingly reluctant with giving a bike for their sons/daughters.
Now with all that said, we also have some of the highest number of car ownership per household.
What does that tell you?
It tells you that
A. Malaysians have relied almost entirely on their own transport to go to work
B. The public transport system is flawed and or deemed not good enough or impractical for most Malaysians.
C. The way our cities are designed are built around the motorcar when instead, we should be designing cities that are pedestrians and public transport friendly from the start. But this is an extremely complex topic.
TLDR – saying people are rich because we own cars is a short sighted way of looking at things.
Are you sure? You are just telling me you have never went to Vietnam or Indonesia before, never seen their streets before, do that before making your long & factually wrong comment.
Lol I said we have ONE OF THE highest, not “THE Highest”. Learn to read before making a long and factually incorrect comment.
Also we’re the 4th highest in bikes per household according to Worldatlas in global ranking, you’ve managed to list 2 countries ahead of us.
Well done, give yourself a pat on the back while ignoring the remaining 190 countries that exists in this world.
Wow. If ONE OF THE Best is good enough to win a medal, then every Olympic competitor should deserve one. Go pat yourself on the back for your “ONE OF THE” Best English ya and get your medal. Now talking statistics, according to Nielsen report we have 3rd highest car ownership in the world, which trumps your 4th placing for motor ownership. In real Olympics, 3rd place gets medals, 4th place gets habuk. Try not to make yourself like a fool.
Couldn’t agree more with Juan! Every time I took the Putra from Kelana Jaya to KLCC, I wondered why it didn’t stop at MV Mega Mall. It would have been a big hit instead of a big miss. and i would have just gone to Mega mall instead of the farther KLCC.
Now already have direct connection to MV Mall. Just stop at Abdlh Hukum station and use the direct bridge link to The Gardens Mall which also directly connected to Mv Mall.
betui ka u ni ambik lrt? even the loudspeaker in the trains says stop at abdullah hukum and take link bridge to gardens or midvalley right before it reaches abdullah hukum station. sembang
Are you daft? Abdullah Hukum connects there, ahh but I’m sure you will say the walk there is too long. Then should ask MV developer why not build MV at Abdullah Hukum instead.
In case you are not aware, there is a elevated pedestrian bridge from Abdullah Hukum Putra LRT station straight into MV. It only takes appr 5min walk. try it!
true, connectivity is bad. those living in cave need to visit Singapore or Japan, you can get to anywhere and everywhere in the region just solely relying on public transport. Malaysia? no, i cant even get a bus in my area to the nearest train..erm none..
owning a car in malaysia is not hard.. just those people wants to own BBA too with the same little amount compare to US / Europe … thats why keep complaining…
The ‘cheap’ cars that were referred to are the bread & butter models from P1 & P2.
But many could still afford to buy the highest spec versions.
But a lot more can only afford the used ones.
I doubt it, more brand new cars bought/sold compared to used cars.
Do used car dealers provide statistics like what MAA provides for new vehicles?
Put fuel price at RM5 per litre and see whether ppl would use public transport of not.
that wrong, because all good price will hick up with fuel price up, it was the transport like lrt that overprice, it cheaper to buy fuel for motocycle than lrt
not cheap cars but nine years loan…
who advise him
very bad advice
we all know the ridership isnt going to pay back the cost of those public LRT MRT TRT SRT whatever RT is it. I can prove it Mael. just give me a call, and i tell u why ridership number isnt going to help u on this
who advise u also please change
also the car price cheap is just convenience for him to say that. there is no relation at all about car price and payback for those MRT LRT
call me mael
they are so rich atas there sit up high, they wont feel wat the general public feels. most of us are on 9 year loan, not bcoz the car is exactly cheap vs our income.
If you need 9 year loan to buy an axia, you got your priorities wrong or else go consider getting sekenhen.
It’s a good point mentioned here. But it may be another reason – there’s only 1 MRT line (plus Kommuter, Monorail, etc…) which is good but these all do not “serve” the population’s location. A main feature is “Feeder” transport like buses that can bring a commuter real convenience with safety and security. If I stay in Shah Alam (Sec 10), there are no feeder system to bring me to say the “Shah Alam Kommuter” unless I take a “Grab” which itself is subject to avaialbility and not a fixed schedule. So the population has no choice but to drive own vehicles. Some authority doing a study to understand the transport & demographic logistics in depth. Otherwise, the system won’t get any better and neither would raising car prices (& taxes) and to burden the population more…no? Thanks
City planning is rather fascinating. You’ve got all sorts of terminologies like strong towns and stroads.
One of Malaysia’s biggest challenge with increasing public transportation ridership is dealing with the suburbs.
For the RMK-12, I would like to suggest the gov to start promoting and replacing ALL state city buses and taxi into EV as a way forward. The gov should also provide sufficient charging area.
EV buses & cars are not cheap to own, run & maintain
When you need to drive / ride to a station, find a location to park it, pay parking fees, make sure the vehicle is secure and still there when you come back. Still worrying when riding public transport, whether someone going to break in, or perhaps authority going to take charge with it…
Mind as well just drive / ride it to your destination. Would be less hassle then.
Due to cheap vehicles or public transportnot convenience? Find out the root cause or else forever can not solve the problem. Since you are so silly, why not I teach you a method? Using 5 whys for root cause.
These sort of low quality news is exactly what makes your blood boil. Cheap cars? Comparing to SG again? Why dont they compare SG salary vs car price to Malaysia? I dont know how you can say cheap cars when most of us had to works years to own a depreciating asset.
Yeah, you may have LRT, MRT, KTM but where’s the buses? If I had to walk few kilometers to a station, I might as well just drive to work. That hasn’t even include the fact your destination might not even be anywhere near the train route.
You would do well to read the article instead of just the headline, which was written that way for the sake of brevity. :)
Automotive news should be more about cars, bikes & other motor vehicles we would like to own & drive, rather than about the government’s public transport policy.
cheap cars? ppl drive their own cars now because they dont want to be exposed to other people in public transport. these politicians really mabuk
TELL me a public transport can go from Kajang (home) to Subang Jaya (work). The public transport is funny, they are disconnected and late and sometimes the bus just skip for an hour. How reliable is this? If we were late to work, who is going to compensate us? Bus company?
Easy. Either take MRT line to KL Sentral or take KTM Seremban line to KL Sentral and switch trains to LRT Kelana line bound for Subang Jaya station. Any other challenges?
PEOPLE are forced to buy cars. Even with 9 years loan because the public transport is so bad. To the author, please go use the public transport from the various spot in klang valley before simply put such misleading POST.
Macamlah we want waste so much money to own car taking a 5 years loan.
Low public transport usage due to cheap car? Not really and it incorrect! Our car prices not the cheapest nor the most expensive, just higher than a few countries (if convert $ to $). Issues were the limited coverage & connectivity available, i.e. whole Shah Alam no LRT or MRT, just Kommuter but this KTM missing 80% of SAlam population till today and limited lines & stations for existing LRT/MRT, still need feeder bus/taxi/Grab before able to have end-to-end connectivity before Rakyat want to use.
Any action will stil impact on the economy.. increase
The cost of ownership of the car like the parking, toll fees or limiting the parking space. It doesn’t solve the real issue.. imposing high down payment fees and limit the year of financing will definitely help but this will affect the the car sales which also the interest earn from the loan at the bank side and at the end, impacted the growth from automobile industry. Will this increase the number of public commuters which has enough revenue to compensate the decline from automobile industry? Tats another question.. anyway half-bake policy makers or “politician” always expect to have half bake plan that not ready for any loss from any of the choice and remain status quo.
If i make the public transport so good, who is going to buy car? no one buys car, where can i get the tax profit from this segment? it’s a big piece of revenue ya… so hope you can see the end goal clearly now :)
Spot on bro! Was gonna mention this, can’t we see this all along?
KTM is a joke, yes it’s doing just okay right now but how many would think of it when it comes taking train?
LRT can be applauded a little but is it also here just because of Commonwealth Games 1998
ETS is serving for longer haul between states
Lastly MRT infrastructure itself is quite good but look deeper again, those MRTs are planned and built mainly ALONG federal links/highways, which means developed or well developing towns, which is usually some populous working class towns so car ownership is no big feat for them, not to forget the accessibility to highways since it’s all about the populous towns.
Granted, the higher the population probably also means higher revenue but once as a daily Kajang Line MRT commuter, this is what I observed.
Then again the “national car” conspiracy theories are there, countering each other out, both reaching halfway and getting nowhere.
What do they mean underutilised? Have you tried taking the public transport on weekdays during the peak hours? It is super packed. How more extra can someone utilise a packed public transport. The capacity is only that much at a single time. We have to accept that the only time people utilise public transport is when they get to work and get back from it at least on a week day. The rest if the time there will be a drop in usage because most of the population are already at work. We need to accept that our country is a tropical country and cannot be compared to western country. Their climate permits them to walk to the station without sweating and taking the public transport. Our sun is so hot that by the time we reach our destination we will be soaking in sweat. If its not sun then it rains and that’s even worse. So definitely our public transport usage will not be the same as the western countries.
From my house to my office is 16 minutes by car or 2 hours and 39 minutes by public transport. I can’t afford to spend 5 hours per day commuting.
high car ownership doesnt translate to cheap car, sometime we doesnt have option. we may had world class train. but we severely lacking first and last mile connectivity. i living in cheras and working at putrajaya. cost per day, petrol=rm10, loan=rm12, insurance/maintenance=rm6 total=rm28 per day. total cost if i using public transport for return journey would be grab=rm11x2+rm6 train=rm8x2+rm1.70 total=rm45.70. using car one way travel time is 45 minutes vs PT 1 hour 45 minutes. HIGH CAR OWNERSHIP DOESNT MEANS OUR CAR IS CHEAP. Especially compared with our average earner rate for B40 and M40.
As a cyberjaya folk, my house is less than 5km from office. Guess what, not a single public transport near my place. No bus stop, nothing. The bus stop at my office only caters for DTS bus for people living outside cyberjaya.
And i had to fork out rm100 for monthly parking pass.
“Another huge contributor was Malaysia’s relatively low cost of car ownership, which has made the public reluctant to switch from private vehicles to public transport”
???
In relative and also absolute terms, Malaysia’s car prices are sky high, isn’t it? The government’s insane.
1 – cars are cheap
2 – malaysia
Pick one.
Unlike Singapore where most people needed MRT as it is well connected and located in town center and Bus Terminal, whereas in KL if you alight from most bus stop you need to walk quiet a distance be it Rain or under the hot Sun and be Cautious about Motorbike Snatch theft before reaching the LRT,MRT, might as well buy a bike or Car .
“The government trumpeted the success of KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS)”
I used it quite often. The best and safest way to get from Alor Setar to KL and back.
Why do I feel the public transport nowadays are getting poorer than during my school days 20y ago?
I get the feeling that you are just trying to find excuse to hike the car price?
Why don’t want to use public transport?
1. No connectivity in between the public transport
2. Bad pedestrian walkway across the road. Danger to walk and cross the road.
3. You have to have 360 degree eyes view to prevent get rob while walking.
4. long waiting time for each transport.
5. Unpredictable raining timing.
6. More expensive to use public transport vs private car.
Why use car,
1. once the start button push, you safety arrived at our destination.