Our government is in the process of bailing out two LRT train operators at a revised cost of RM5.32 billion. Losses are usually expected in any new public transportation company but the people want to know why the losses are so huge.
KTM is the only surviving operator and we must find out why they succeeded while the others flopped.
Then we have the monorail and ERL operating soon and we must quickly learn from the Star and Putra mistakes to prevent these newcomers from falling into the same fate.
A post-mortem report can only be known after the new management takeover. I wonder if the purchasing price is fair or is it hiked up like in previous bailouts by the government?
We assume the cost of RM5.32 billion takes into account assets and shareholding rights. What are their liabilities and the amount? When will their bonds mature? Probably they may not even have borrowed using bonds but short-term loans with high interest rates and stock value for collateral. This a long-term public project which means it is not too profit-oriented. And why didn't the government help the operators secure long-term bonds to cushion themselves against sloppy profits and economic fluctuations at the first place?
Is there any other hidden factor of malpractice or breach of trust? Are they any other supportive projects for our LRTs, which have not be implemented?
Blaming Malaysians for being unwilling to pay higher first-nation fares is absurd. How can we pay first-nation fares when we are not even a first nation yet?
No doubt public rail transportation in developed countries is for the poor but their poor are equivalent to our urban rich.
However, our urban rich in KL don't often travel by public rail transport because they own private vehicles. The drop in passenger numbers should be expected because during the first two years of operation, people are just eager to travel by train for the fun of it and the initial fares were reasonable to our economic standard.
Travelling to and from the train station is not convenient because there is a lack of feeder busses and no integration with other existing bus operators. Another main reason in my opinion is the low population density surrounding the train stations.
Taking public transport in KL would cost a person RM300 per month which is about the same cost incurred in driving your own car for a month. Train fares will not give discounts for groups going to the same destination but the cost of using a car can be further reduced by having more passengers. The total cost of car ownership is still relatively cheap and car prices are expected to come down significantly after the Asean Free Trade Agreement. The government would have to decide which to protect - the auto industry and highway constructions, or public rail networks.
Our city trains and public transport have failed as they are too expensive for the larger group of poor commuters who do not own cars. The market segment the LRTs are presently targetting is not large enough and there is heavy competition from private vehicles. The poor will be further neglected with the rising cost of public transport until they have limited choices or end up owning a private vehicle instead because that will be the cheaper option, ironically.
