“Government’s Efforts To Promote Public Transportation Bear Fruits As Kelana Jaya LRT Line Ridership Jumps By 13.3 Per Cent Following The Introduction Of 4-Car Train Sets”

One of the first National Key Results Area (NKRA) initiatives under the Government's Improvement of Urban Public Transport agenda is the introduction of RapidKL's four-car LRT trains for the Kelana Jaya line. I am pleased to note that this initiative has seen a very encouraging response from the public although it has only been in place for a short time. 

The first four-car LRT trains started operations on 30 December 2009. So far, six sets are already running. The fourth set started operations on 5 January 2010, and I am proud to be among the first passengers on board. Latest statistics from RapidKL show that since the introduction of the four-car trains, LRT ridership for the Kelana Jaya line has been on the rise. 

For January 2010, average daily ridership for the Kelana Jaya line was 156,084, up by about 12.2 per cent from 139,168 for the same period last year. 

From 1 January 2010 to 7 February 2010, there were 6,240,531 passengers who took the Kelana Jaya LRT line, compared to 5,507,490 for the same period last year. This represents a 13.3 per cent increase, a significant rise considering that for the whole of 2009, total ridership dropped by 4.4 per cent compared with 2008.  

This improvement is largely attributed to the increased capacity of the four-car trains as well as the draw of more comfortable coaches. The four-car trains can fit 800 passengers at any one time, which is double the capacity of the two-car sets. 

The increase in ridership also shows the public has responded positively towards the Government’s commitment towards making public transport convenient, safe and efficient.  

I expect the ridership figure to rise further with the arrival of more four-car sets, until all 35 sets are here in 2012. The fifth set started operations on 2 February 2010, and the sixth set on 12 February 2010.  

The scheduled arrival of more four-car sets is expected to cut waiting time for LRT Kelana Jaya line trains from about three minutes now, to about 2 minutes by October this year.  

When it was introduced in 1998, about 90,000 commuters used the LRT Kelana Jaya line. Today, we have about 180,000 people using the service.

-ends-

19 February 2010  

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