In a tangle over LRT lines

On Jan 19, a Saturday, residents of SS14 Subang Jaya held a meeting in which they publicly objected to the proposed LRT extension through their neighbourhood. Some people may wish to label those who disagree with development as suffering from the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome.

The rejection of this proposed route is much more about poor transportation and development planning than it is about Nimby-ism.

Malaysia is being plagued by poor development planning, and I am finally glad to hear people speaking out about it. There have been many examples of what happens when governments do not look at the bigger picture during the planning process. The Subang-Kelana Link is but one example.

Because Subang Jaya was originally built with a single exit, it has become necessary to build a second exit over the federal highway at very high cost. Then, this proposed second link was extended to become an elevated highway which will direct massive amounts of traffic into the already congested community.

There are many other examples of what happens when government agencies do not plan or communicate properly with one another. For example when the KL-Putrajaya highway was deferred, KL City Hall (DBKL) allowed developers to buy land along the proposed alignment. Now residents of some areas of Sri Petaling can look out of their windows and see the elevated highway.

In the case of the proposed extension of the Kelana Jaya LRT line, the federal government agreed to this extension from Kelana Jaya to Subang Jaya and USJ in 2005 and approved the route in mid-2007. Yet they have not made any information about this route public.

At the same time, the Selangor state government has proposed an alternative extension, from Kelana Jaya to Shah Alam and Klang, which was also gazetted in the Selangor Structural plan in mid-2007.

This means that the federal government and the state government have clearly got different ideas about where this LRT extension should go.

The line that is being disputed here is a route from the present Subang Jaya KTM Komuter station, along Persiaran Jengka and then following the monsoon drain along Jalan SS14/7, Jalan SS14/8, Jalan SS14/5J and Jalan SS14/6M.

It is not clear if this line is the same as the one the federal government has proposed, which was an extension from Kelana Jaya. First, there is no link between Subang Jaya and Kelana Jaya, and second, the federal government and Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB) have not told us about the route for the proposed LRT extension yet - even though it was approved in mid-2007.

I’m sure that many people are wondering why has the federal government has not made the route official. People are also wondering why it appears that the federal government and the Selangor government have different plans for the Kelana Jaya extension.

In fact, I am now hearing talk that the Kelana Jaya extension to Subang Jaya and USJ may actually not take place. Instead, Prasarana may extend the LRT from Seri Petaling to Puchong, through USJ, and ultimately to Section 16 in Shah Alam!

In the absence of clear information from the government, people will speculate on anything!

Another example of unclear information can be found in the maps for the routes itself. The map posted on the Selangor state website describes this disputed line as a ‘laluan rel’ but the official documents of the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan describes this line as a ‘laluan transit’.

According to an officer with the state government, a ‘laluan transit’ is not necessarily a LRT, and it could refer to bus lanes, a monorail or a tram system. Perhaps this disputed line will not even be an LRT. Again, we do not know because the information is not clear.

What is clear is that for the past 10 years, there has been no effective strategy for improving public transportation in Subang Jaya and USJ. Locally, all plans seem to focus on getting the LRT extension to come to Subang Jaya even if the plans do not make good sense. While the residents and government sit and wait and argue over costly plans that only focus on costly LRT extensions, traffic congestion gets worse and worse.

The alternative proposal produced by Subang Jaya ‘residents’ is one example. There was no consultation with the residents or public transport users. There were also no public discussions on this LRT proposal before it was delivered to the government and Prasarana.

In addition, this proposal reflects a lack of understanding about the real situation on the street. The proposal would have taken the LRT extension through Bandar Sunway using the Jalan Jenkga/NPE alignment. Unfortunately, this route is now blocked by the presence of the Subang- Kelana elevated highway.

Building the LRT over and around this highway would be costly. Also, that proposed route has been rejected by some residents of PJS9 (Bandar Sunway), who are already dealing with many problems from unfettered development.

Some people have proposed that the LRT line follow the route of Jalan Jengka through Subang Jaya, cross the Lebuh Raya Shah Alam (E5 - KESAS highway) directly to the Summit Shopping Centre in USJ1. Like the other proposal from residents, this route appears ideal but then there is no service to Bandar Sunway.

There is also very little room for this alignment, especially around the expressway, and it does run the LRT through a residential area, literally casting a shadow over the community.

Why spend RM200m?

Nearly two years ago I proposed that the best solution to public transport problems was to implement a strategy of quick and low-cost improvements in as many places as possible. The four parts of this simple proposal were: double the size of the KTM Komuter fleet to improve Komuter service, introduce a limited stops ‘Komuter Laju’ service, introduce bus lanes on all major roads and introduce express buses and Rapid Transit bus lines linking the suburbs to the city.

I also proposed that the Kelana Jaya LRT service be extended from Kelana Jaya LRT station to a new station at the Lembah Subang Depot. Extending the LRT service here would have been a very easy and quick improvement.

The guideway and tracks are already in place. All that would have been needed would have been to construct a new platform and bus terminal for passengers.

I even spoke to Rapid KL CEO Rein Westra about this plan last year. At the time he stated very clearly that there was no room on his trains for any more passengers and even a one station extension was impossible.

You can imagine how disappointed I was to see that there was no support for these ideas. If there had been support two years ago, this new station at Lembah Subang could have been in service by 2007.

By now feeder buses could have been operating in Subang Jaya and USJ, reducing traffic congestion. KTM could be well on their way to expanding their services, with the first new coaches appearing in 2009.

After all, why spend RM200 million for one kilometre of an LRT when that same RM200 million could create 5km of rapid tram lines or 10-15 km of Rapid Bus transit lines? Why build new LRT lines when the KTM service could triple its current capacity just by purchasing more coaches and hiring more operators?

MOAZ YUSUF AHMAD is a regular user of public transport who is deeply concerned that government plans to encourage people to use public transport will ultimately fail because of poor planning and a lack of support from the public.