KK City Hall has decided to temporary close its Wawasan Bus Terminal – the main bus terminal in the city – for upgrading works starting July 5.
This is following complaints that it is in a deplorable condition and is causing problems to the commuters every day. But bus operators are up in arms and so too will be commuters as they try to find their way around the already congested city which has probably the most disorganised public transport service in the country.
Jahara Patimbangi, the managing director from City Shuttle Bus Company Mustika Enterprise Sdn Bhd and the main spokesperson for a group of bus operators has already slammed the idea. City Hall planners have proposed that as a temporary measure buses will start and end their journeys at three different locations instead of just one.
The three temporary terminal locations are in front of Marina Court along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen for Southern A Zone, Bandaran Berjaya for Northen B Zone and Karamusing for Northern B Zone.
However Jahara said the temporary plan is unsuitable for their 40 seat buses because the stop location space is too small and can pose accident risks for bus commuters. At the moment, bus services are chaotic. One reliable commuter service run by the city, the City Shuttle, doesn’t seem to have designated bus stops or a terminus.
They now will also depend on the three location that will be jammed with a horde of privately run buses. Jahara has suggested the Likas Sport Complex parking area as a site for the temporary stop for Northern B Zone bus operators.
She said the City Shuttle Bus could pick up commuters in the city and deposit them at the suggested site which would have the added advantage of reducing the number of the buses entering the city, currently one of the problems for road congestion at peak hours.
Messy situation
But Aishah Yap, a representative of the Likas Bus Operator Association, however does not agree with the Sport Complex parking site location as it would shorten their route tremendously.
She believes that a shortened route would cut into bus operators’ income while they are already competing with ‘pirate’ taxi and bus services operating within their service route especially in City Market area.
Yap also claimed there was a verbal agreement with City Hall to allow their buses to travel along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen passing the market area, but this is not realised in the current relocation plan.
Azhbi Adam who represents the Sepanggar Bus Operator Association has suggested a terminus at a vacant plot belonging to the Port Authority for the Northern B Zone as it is bigger than current site offered by City Hall.
The whole mess is new Api Api state representative Christina Liew’s first challenge since winning the election on a PKR ticket last month. She said she has always been aware of the problem of poor public transport in the city and has spoken to KK City Hall Mayor Abidin Madingkir about it.
The intensity of the criticism by the bus companies and associations and soon by commuters has however caught the City Hall authorities off guard. Liew recognises the problem can cost her dearly in the political arena and wants City Hall to abandon its current plan until they have found a location that is suitable to bus operators and commuters.
There are more than 800 buses plying the city’s busy roads. The City Shuttle Bus services has 21 40-seaters vehicles. Sixty buses ply the Sepanggar route while the Likas route has 20.
The rest are “urban transit buses” which comprise the 12 seater minivans and 20 seats mini buses.
There is no indication by City Hall how long the new bus route plan is expected to go on.
FMT
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