THE new Sungai Buloh – Kajang (SBK) Mass Rail Transit (MRT) line, once dubbed “The Real Kajang Move” by Prime Minister Najib Razak, is attracting more than 120,000 passengers per day.

Since its phase two launch on July 17, Azhar Ghazali, Prasarana’s head of media affairs, said the number of passengers had steadily increased with the 50% discount on fares given until August 31.

“Since day 1 we already have full alignment, on average it is around 100,000 passengers on weekdays, and 150,000 passengers on weekends.

“We can hold up to 300 per car, so it is a maximum of 1,200 passengers per trip at any one time,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Alexia Tan Pei Ling, 34, who takes the MRT frequently for work said she was happy that the MRT stations like Bukit Bintang were clean and efficient, however she was disappointed that the general public still litter.

“I take the Jalan Tun Razak Station to Bukit Bintang and vice versa all the time, the stations are of five star quality, but I see Malaysians throwing rubbish indiscriminately,” she said.

Another passenger, Farah Mudrikah who took the MRT to Stadium Kajang for the Sea Games, said she was happy that the stations had proper facilities like bicycle parking and feeder buses.

“It’s nice that MRT was developed in a way for the convenience of the public. I hope that they will have more discounts in the future,” she said.

S. Rajendran, 37, said he was disappointed that several facilities had been vandalised, and said that it would give a bad image to tourists who come to Malaysia.

He then applauded Prasarana’s recent effort of uploading pictures on their social media page of people who litter and behave inappropriately when using the MRT.

“Like some of the toilets I see, it has been vandalised, sometimes I sit in the MRT there are people who put their bags on the chairs when people have already no place to sit.

“Uploading it to social media is unconventional I’ll give you that, but it is a necessity for these people to truly learn how to at least be clean, if you don’t want to learn it, let society teach you,” he said.

MRT Corporation Sdn Bhd, which is under Prasarana, has taken several measures to deal with commuters that are not civic-conscious.

This includes uploading photographs on the MRT Facebook page of commuters with censored faces caught littering, eating, and placing bags on seats.

MRT Corporation Sdn Bhd gave commuters a 50% discount in fares till Merdeka Day. 

Phase 2 of the SBK MRT line runs from the Semantan station to the Kajang Station and has 19 stations across 30km.

This follows the launch of Phase 1 of the SBK line, which was opened last December.

The entire stretch of the SBK MRT has 24 stations with 7 underground stations. It is the first of three MRT lines proposed under the Klang Valley MRT project.

The Klang Valley MRT system is among the projects in the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley National Key Economic Area (NKEA).

The NKEA is part of the Economic Transformation Programme implemented by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department. – September 4, 2017.