Parking rates will be dearer and roadside parking bays will become scarcer once the new state-run RapidPenang bus service is operating satisfactorily.

Motorist will be encouraged to leave their cars at 'park and ride' areas to commute around the island state.

These were the Penang Government strategies to contain traffic snarls and encourage locals to utilise public transport.

State Executive Councillor Dr Teng Hock Nan acknowledged that the new strategies would be difficult to restore public confidence in public bus service.

"But it's not impossible," he told a press conference yesterday on the progress of RapidPenang.

It is learnt that the state government had identified three sites across the island for the 'park and ride' hubs.

Gov't fears 'backlash'

Both the Penang Island and Seberang Perai municipalities are already earmarking parking bays that would be erased from the streets and in the process of adjusting parking rates.

Teng said the state government would only give the go-ahead to reduce parking bays and raise parking rates once RapidPenang had satisfied the certain requirements - providing efficient, reliable, comfortable and affordable bus service.

"Otherwise, the state government would face a public backlash," he said.

Penang, which once boast of the country's best public transport system, seemed to have lost its way over the past 15 years, which locals blame on ineffective state government policies.

The state government revamped the state bus operations several times over the past 10 years by first integrating local bus companies under a single consortium to improve and then allowing individual companies to operate their services in their own way.

But the attempts proved futile, resulting in the inefficient bus services in Penang and an increased use of personal modes of transportation.

Statistics show that only about 50,000 of the state 1.3 million population commute by public transport.

Federal government-owned RapidPenang has been brought in to resolve the problem and also restore public confidence on the metropolitan transport system.

"In long run, the state government believes that RapidPenang would provide a good bus service and our strategies would work to bring back the commuters.

"RapidPenang has the financial strength, experience, expertise and proven track record to operate an efficient, affordable and reliable public bus network," said Teng, who oversees local government, traffic management, information and community relations.

Will obtain feedback

Effective Aug 1 this year, RapidPenang will deploy 150 new buses, imported for RM31 million from China, to ply five main corridor routes on the island and three more in Seberang Perai.

The island main routes will link Weld Quay in George Town with Teluk Bahang, Air Itam, Bayan Baru and Balik Pulau, and between Teluk Bahang and Balik Pulau, while the mainland corridor routes will link Butterworth with Kepala Batas, Bukit Mertajam and Nibong Tebal.

The company will operate 35 high and low-density routes, including 28 on the island and seven on the mainland, and deploy 135 buses to ply the routes at any one time.

RapidKL chief operating officer for bus operations, Mohd Ali Mohd Nor said RapidPenang would work closely with Public Transport Consultative Forum to garner feedback and implement new strategies to consistently improve the bus service.

Headed by Teng, the forum consist of representatives from RapidPenang and the Citizens Group for Public Transport (Cepat).

Cepat is a local public transport watchdog group comprising 25 non-government organisations in the state.