It is almost official - the first MRT train is expected to start operating in 2016. And just this past week, Prasarana has announced the main contractors for Package A for the LRT line extensions.

And wouldn't you know it, but the new six-carriage Komuter trains are being assembled and are expected to arrive sometime in 2012 and be in service before the end of the year.

As great as this news is, there is still a thought that bugs me: What are we going to do to improve public transport in the meantime?

It has been five years since the first announcements were made about LRT extensions. It has been more than two years since the extensions to Subang Jaya and Puchong were confirmed, and approximately five months since the MRT proposal first appeared and was accepted wholeheartedly by the government.

In all that time, what serious improvements to public transport have been recorded in the Klang Valley? Sure, we have new four-carriage trains for the Kelana Jaya LRT line, and there are plans to purchase new trains for the Ampang LRT and KL Monorail.

There are also plans for a massive purchase of new low-floor buses for the RapidKL fleet.

But these improvements are limited to the services owned and operated by Prasarana/RapidKL.

The only improvements that we are seeing are in infrastructure and fleet management and they are brought about by the government doing what it was supposed to do years ago - spend money to buy new trains and buses for companies that it owns.

And despite the claims made back in 2007 that 'rationalising the bus routes would make RapidKL services more efficient, we have seen service quality and frequency get worse and worse.

The new RapidBET service, which now has five operating routes, is only moving about 2500 more people per day, morning and evening, while every day a large number of RapidKL buses sit empty at the Cyberjaya Transport Terminal, awaiting passengers.

The sad thing is that despite the money being spent and the attention being paid by the government, the real problems that plague the public transport system are not being fixed to any extent.

No one has yet come up with a system that encourages privately-owned and publicly owned bus operators to cooperate to offer better public transport services, instead of competing for passengers.

No one has found a way to get any local government to take serious and active interest in public transport - whether it is in the planning of community shuttle buses or finding space for necessary bus lanes.

And no one has been able to tell me why public transport users have been continuously told to wait for improvements to rail service as the solution to our bus problems.

It seems that every time there are problems with our public transport, mostly with the bus system, the solution is to propose a rail line and tell the public to wait.

Some of my older friends tell me they have been waiting for real improvements to buses since the 1980s, but all they have gotten is the "next rail line" which was supposed to fix everything.