Monday, March 19, 2012

KTM train stopping at Kluang and so passengers find your own way after that to Kulai, JB, etc

At the train station in Mentakab, when passengers arrived to get on their train to the south, until Johor Bahru, they were told that the train today will only go until Kluang - and not all the way. Passengers were given the option to have their tickets re-imbursed, or alternatively at Kluang - get the money back for those with tickets that went beyond. The reason - problem with the rail tracks...

This is not at all acceptable - for really KTM should have done more. Well, for one, maybe they should have arranged for buses to shuttle all passengers to their respective destinations. Now, what I believe will happen is that when these passengers arrive in Kluang - get some re-reimbursements, they have to make their own arrangements and it will not be easy to get bus tickets then, or even get taxis - and they may end up paying so much more as some people may just take advantage of the desperation of people to get to where they wanted to go...

There would be direct busses from Kluang to all the relevant destination towns ... and getting bus tickets for the night at about 7-8 pem is really not going to be easy. That is why KTM, whenever things like this happen should be responsible enough to organize/arrange alternative means of transport to get all passengers to their destinations as per their train tickets..

Well, it is usually the poorer of Malaysian people that use public transport like trains - and so, most likely no one will make 'BIG' noise and so... KTM and/or the relevant Minister will not do the needful to ensure proper reasonable action is taken. No customer should be forced to take out any more money - or be subjected to the extra difficulty of finding their own way to their final destinations.

Talking about rail transport - Malaysia has certainly failed in improving and upgrading the services, especially the east6 coast line from Tumpat to JB - don't you even have 'double tracks' so that when one track is being repaired - there is always the 2nd track... In Europe and most developing countries, rail travel is being continuously been developed and upgraded as it really is a very effective form of public transportation - How many new tracks/routes have been developed since the British gave us independence? Is this all because Malaysia just wants to sell its Proton, Kancils, etc...and as such a 'bad' public transport system will certainly encourage more and more people to buy our Malaysian cars, motorcycles, etc....Let's think of the future and develop rail transport to be an effective public transport option...

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