This past weekend I had the good pleasure of meeting a former colleague, a teacher who I respect a great deal. As we were sitting and talking, he asked me if I thought that all of my efforts to improve public transport from the citizen's side had been worthwhile. In other words, did I think that five years of writing letters to the editor, making presentations, meeting with planners and government and operators, and even running a blogsite had made a real difference

The answer that I gave him was the same that I have given everyone. Yes, my efforts have made a difference. On the surface it may appear that little has changed, but underneath it all things are getting better and better for public transport. On top of that, I have gained a great deal of experience and knowledge that I hope to pass on to others.

The past 5 years have not been easy. Frankly, there have been many ups and downs in public transport - mostly downs. I can count on one hand the number of successful improvements that I have seen, while the number of failures is quite larger.

But that is the nature of public transport and any other public service - people remember the failures far more than they remember the successes. On the other hand, I prefer to remember the successes.

In Penang, I certainly prefer to look at the success of RapidPenang, which could have been a bloated government-owned company but has instead become lean, ambitious and motivated. RapidPenang is a successful example of how public transport can be improved and it would be even more of a success if there was better cooperation and coordination.

For those who think that RapidPenang is a failure, perhaps they should look upon Penang's ‘April Fool's Joke’, the public transport revamp introduce on April 1, 2006 and declared a failure perhaps two months later. That failure was not for a lack of effort - but a lack of coordination and support from all levels of government to improve public transport.

In Kuala Lumpur, there have been some improvements. Prasarana has basically taken over RapidKL and the KL Monorail, reorganising the companies and reshaping them to provide better public transport service. Small incremental improvements (like repainting, improved signages, better information) have slowly taken place. There have been notable successes and Prasarana-RapidKL is promising more successes and improvements to come.

What we did not have in 2005 and 2006, we now have. The federal government has identified public transport as a national key result area and made some crucial investments. State governments have woken up to the fact that they are also responsible for public transport. We are seeing efforts to improve the coordination of public transport in Penang, Selangor, Melaka, Johor, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak.

Over in Perak, the government has decided to upgrade and improve the bus terminal at Medan Kidd, integrating it with the KTM railway station. This is a much better version of ‘Ipoh Sentral’ than the original ‘Ipoh Sentral’ proposed for Bandar Meru Raya, which shows that perhaps the state government is listening and learning.

Perhaps most important is that in the upcoming sitting of Parliament, a bill will be introduced to formally create the Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (Spad) - the Public Land Transport Commission. Spad will be tasked with improving public transport over the next decade, managing investment and overseeing the shift from an entrepreneurial, competition-based model into a more successful, service and investment-based model.

I have prepared and shared a long list of ways that Spad could make changes and improve public transport which I hope to see happening soon. However, I have been told that these changes will take time. So I will only share the first and most important one.

The best thing that Spad can do, starting in June this year when it is created, is to bring dignity and respect back into public transport. That means that all bus drivers be treated with respect by their employers and that they will receive proper salaries, medical benefits and have EPF and Socso contributions instead of being paid on a per-trip basis.

It also means that bus drivers and their employers will be trained properly to respect the rules of the road and put the safety of their passengers first and foremost. It also means that passengers will give respect to bus drivers and bus companies that emphasise and live and breathe safety.

And finally, it means that the government will respect the fact that good, safe, high-quality public transport is necessary for the economic and social well-being of our Malaysian society. Of course change will not be easy - but we have to start somewhere. Respect is the best place to start.