The government is acutely aware of the serious short comings of the country’s public transportation system. Only 16% of residents in the Klang Valley use public transportation where as the majority uses personal transportation. This is due to the fact that the ratio of rail track to population size is just 19km per a million of population, that covers only certain parts of Klang Valley. Klang Valley’s three existing rail systems and stage buses are already overcrowded with 260,000 commuters during morning rush hour. A special task force headed by the Ministry of Transport has already been set up to make the Klang Valley publictransportation system more attractive. The taskforce’s goal is to increase the number of users from 16%to 25% by 2012. Urban areas with high population density such as Penang and Johor Bahru are also being targeted with a similar drive but with yet-to-be-mentioned timeframes. The government’s goal is create a world class public transportation system through enhancing its service, capacity, coverage and connectivity. Special emphasise will be given to rail transportation as the backbone to planned improvement of urban public transportation. Initial moves by the government is already underway with the planned purchase of 10 sets of electric multiple units (EMU) for Keretapi Tanah Melayu and 10 new trains for Kelana Jaya’s Light Rail Transport (LRT) line. The existing LRT lines will also be extended to 32km of track per million of population by 2012. Outside of the Klang Valley, certain segments of the ongoing electric double tracking project for KTM are nearing completion.
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