Klang Valley MRT

The Klang Valley has been officially launched by our PM on 8th July 2011. For the MRT final alignment, you can see it here. I was not at the KL Convention Centre to witness the launching. Thus I'm not too sure of what was exhibited as the final MRT alignment linking Sungai Buloh to Kajang. But looking at the MRT website, I was a bit dissapointed with the Final Route Map. I am expecting something to precisely indicate the location of the stations. But we are only presented with the Final Route Map sketch. Hence, we can't be sure of where the proposed stations are located. To me, it's important in making any decision on property investment.

Nevertheless, I'm a supporter of this project. It's long overdue. I had the chance to view the public display somewhere in March this year in Shah Alam. I gave some feedback regarding this project. My view of this project as follows:

1. My biggest criticism of this project is the stations location. If you look at the preliminary stations location, some of the stations are located nearby busy highways namely LDP and Cheras-Kajang. It's better to locate the stations away from busy highways so that traffic will be diverted away from the already busy highways. You just can't expect everybody to use feeder bus to get to the stations. Thus, if more people are driving to the stations, the highways will be more congested than it already is. Nevertheless, I understand why the locations are located such a way. Most of the stations proposed are located either on federal government land, adopted by housing developers or shopping malls. This way, there will be lesser land takeover involved. When land matters are involved, there is a whole lot of things that can go wrong especially when it involve two different government of the day. Land matters are in the hand of state government. If you have been following closely the LRT extension project, you'll notice that land matters made it complicated and resulted in delay to the project contract award. Some politicians are known to make it difficult for the project to kick start hence gaining political mileage. Our politicians are not known for working together for the benefits of Malaysians. They are too preoccupied to gain political mileage rather than to sit down and resolve woes of the ordinary public. Having the stations at such locations will minimize this problem. Hence, if there are any changes to the state or federal government of the day, there will be minimal impact to this project.
2. The proposed feeder bus routes were also on display to the public during the public display. I think the feeder bus operating radius is pretty small covering about 3km from the MRT stations. I do think this should be expanded to cater for more commuters and discouraging the commuters from driving to the stations and reduce congestion. Feeder bus is an integral part to the success of this MRT project. Without a proper network, the objective is unlikely to be achieved.
3. A proposal I made to SPAD is to enable the MRT to skip stations during peak hours so as to shorten travel time and also reduce congestion on the train itself. During peak hours, there would be dedicated trains that will stop only at certain stations which have high commuters. The stations can be determined later when the MRT is already in operation. Since the MRT line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang is not a circular line, this proposal should be able to work. Most of the time, travelers from north (Sungai Buloh) will travel to city centre and those from south (Kajang) will travel to city centre as well since this is the business district. It will be quite rare to see commuter traveling from north to south along the line especially during peak hours. Reducing the number of stations stopped will reduce travelling time and also reduce congestion on the trains. At the same time, there should be trains that stop at all stations as well to cater for other commuter needs. I think this proposal is best for KTM commuter. I'll propose this to them later. 
4. Now I'm wondering why the MRT is not extended to Bandar Baru Bangi since it is also part of Greater Kuala Lumpur. The population is also on the rise with few new housing developments as well as a few institution of higher learning. This will greatly benefit residents there and avoid the need for residents in this area to travel to Kajang to catch the MRT. 

Hopefully the other portion of the MRT will be revealed soon. Looking forward to the MRT going through Shah Alam