It came as a surprise to me to see that Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz did a walkabout in KL's Chinatown area, taking a look at public transport issues in the area of Jalan Silang, Bangkok Bank, Kota Raya and the Klang Bus Stand.

After Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had done his walkabout of the Masjid India area, including a trip on the LRT to Puduraya, Transit had invited him to visit the KL Chinatown area and see the public transport issues for himself - and offered to show him around.

But the surprise was that Nazri went to the ground instead - ironically, without letting members of Transit know. So while I was waiting for Nazri (as an invited guest) at the dialogue with the taxi drivers, Nazri was taking action on the bus issues.

Following news reports of the visit, it seems that the visit made quite an impression on Nazri. The media reported that Nazri was angry with the pollution and blocking of roads, and that he even went to the extent of telling bus operators to stop waiting and start moving. Of course, the media did not report whether the buses actually moved on Nazri's order.

Nazri also noted that he ‘thought' that the bus operators were using the ‘pajak' system - the closest that any politician has come to admitting that this exists. Now let us see some action being taken against bus operators that ‘pajak' their buses.

The biggest observation of the day was when Nazri mentioned that there were six bus operators serving KL (actually there are far more but the six are the major ones) and also noted that there were six entry points to reach the city.

So Nazri has directed the CVLB to give each bus operator their own separate entry point and bus stand. The CVLB has two months to plan the new routes. Nazri will meet with the operators separately.

Transit would like to suggest that the planning of new routes can be accomplished a lot sooner than that - they simply have to do one thing - ask RapidKL for information.

You see, back in 2006, RapidKL divided the Klang Valley into six ‘areas.' To serve these six areas, RapidKL identified five separate entry points as ‘Bus Hubs' and terminated the stage bus services there. For access into the city, RapidKL offered a ‘City Shuttle Service'. For convenience, they offered a single all-day ticket and Touch 'N Go service and monthly passes. Prasarana also bought hundreds of brand new buses for RapidKL to operate.

But the problem was that only RapidKL was following the new system. The other bus operators were allowed to continue to ‘pajak' their buses, to block the streets of KL, raise their fares to the maximum allowed, cut costs to the bare minimum and to pollute the air with black diesel smoke from their old, poorly-maintained buses.

Ironically, it is these bus operators who are claiming that the system is unfair because RapidKL gets financial support from the government.

So what is the solution? Ironically, it is in the hands of the CVLB. With the support of the federal government and DBKL, the CVLB can act as a de facto Local Public Transport authority, instead of waiting until the new Public Land Transport Commission is created.

The CVLB can plan the new routes, as Nazri has directed. They can package the ‘areas' to include a mix of profitable and social routes. They can make each area available under contract, through an open tender process, to the existing bus operators. They can work with Prasarana to buy more buses to supplement the existing fleets of all the bus operators.

In order to participate, the bus operators would also have to stop using the ‘pajak' system, start paying their employees a full and competitive monthly salary, buy new buses (or lease them from Prasarana) and maintain their existing fleet. By following this system, the CVLB will be able to bring back accountability to the bus operators and help improve public transport services in the Klang Valley.

In terms of actual routes, back in 2006, RapidKL had a good, solid plan for the whole Klang Valley. Unfortunately, they were never able to implement the whole plan because the system was unfairly tilted in favour of the other bus operators.

If the CVLB takes the RapidKL ‘areas' as a starting point, and maybe grabs a few copies of the BastrenKL map for a complete overview, they might be able to plan a better system for the Klang Valley.

Transit suggests that the CVLB keep RapidKL's route system and devise a single-ticketing system to be used in the Klang Valley. Let RapidKL run the City Shuttles and LRT. Transfer the Cyberjaya Dedicated Transport Service to the Putrajaya corporation which has more buses than it needs.

Let the additional buses go to the operators who have been selected to provide services for each area. That way RapidKL can concentrate on LRT and the City Shuttle, the other bus operators can improve their services, and public transport users get a single, effective public transport system.

Recently, Nazri said that he would review the role of RapidKL. Transit can only hope that Nazri and the CVLB will realize that it is RapidKL that has the answers that they are looking for.

The writer represents Transit.