THE average daily ridership of the various forms of public transport in the country recorded a 12% increase in total to 638,608 from January to August this year, compared with 570,021 throughout 2016.

This was a significant pick up after a 9% decline in ridership last year caused by an urban rail fare review in 2015, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said in a statement.

The number, however, did not include Mass Rapid Transit line 1, which recorded an average daily ridership of 101,024 as it was only launched this year, it said.

The commission said the LRT-Kelana Jaya line led the growth this year with an increase of 26% from 215,855 to 271,250 in the Klang Valley, followed by the LRT-Ampang line with a 14% increase from 161,779 to 184,931 and KLIA Transit with a 10% increase from 17,719 to 19,420.

However, SPAD said several forms of public transport suffered a dip in ridership this year because of upgrading works, including the KTM Komuter services, which saw a 5% decrease from 108,023 last year to 103,074 following the Klang Valley Double Track rehabilitation project, which impacted on the train’s services.

“We expect ridership to stabilise and pick-up once the KVDT rehabilitation work which covers the upgrading of track and signalling systems is completed in 2019 to modernise the 42km KTM Komuter network,” it said

Other than that, the KL Monorail ridership also hit a downtrend with a reduction of 11% because of the removal of the five four-car monorail train sets over safety concerns.

Despite all these, SPAD said its independent customer satisfaction index survey indicated that 84% of respondents were satisfied with urban public transport last year, an increase of 10% from the previous year.

“These findings show that the government is on the right track in planning and implementation of initiatives under the National Land Public Transport Master Plan.

“The Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley’s record of delivering its recent public transport projects on time is testament to the forward planning process now in place,” it said.

SPAD said the commission would soon launch the journey planner in the fourth quarter and implement the integrated ticketing system by 2019 to attract more ridership by making transit more seamless. – Bernama, October 7, 2017.