I would like to congratulate and welcome the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in recognising the importance of transportation within the city by allocating RM9.275 million for it in the 2016 budget. The total budget for MBPJ in 2016 is RM397,165,900.00.

MBPJ is the first local council to identify public transportation as part of its important role. According to Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171):

Further powers of local authority

101. In addition to any other powers conferred upon it by this Act or by any other written law a local authority shall have power to do all or any of the following things, namely -

(o) subject to the provisions of any law relating to road traffic, to establish, acquire, maintain and carry on within or without the local authority area public transport services;

MBPJ have taken great step toward improving the public transport services of PJ by introducing the PJ Free Bus in 2014. MBPJ is the first local council in Malaysia to provide such services and it has received a great response from public especially residents of PJ. The current ridership is about 9,000 per day. With this progress, it has given confidence and assurance to us in increasing more routes for 2016.

In 2016, MBPJ will add two more routes from existing PJ01 (PJS Bus Hub to Taman Jaya LRT station) and PJ02 (Taman Jaya LRT station to SS2) to PJ03 (Taman Bahagia LRT Station to SS6, Kelana Jaya) and PJ04 (Taman Bahagia LRT Station to Kg Tunku – Sea Park). The details of the routes will be identified soon and the total budget for PJ Free Bus in 2016 is RM6.59 million.

Based on limited financial resources for public transportation, MBPJ cannot keep growing the network of PJ Free Bus in the future. Thus, we have studied more bus routes under PJ Master Transportation Plan. We have worked closely with Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (Spad) to finalising six bus transit lines. The proposed six transit lines (Not PJ Free Bus) as below which are endorsed in Budget 2016:

i) BT 1 - Damansara Damai to Sg Way

ii) BT 2 - Kota Damansara to Ara Damansara

iii) BT 3 - Damansara Damai to Sg Way

iv) BT 4 - Bandar Utama to Kelana Jaya

v) BT 5 - Bandar Utama to PJS 3/2

vi) BT 6 - SS2 to Jalan Othman

Spad principally have no objection for MBPJ to carry out tender for the above bus routes and we are awaiting official agreement from them.

A few suggestions

While waiting the transit lines to become reality in PJ, MBPJ will work on the ridership of PJ Free Bus. In order to improve the ridership, the following are some of my suggestions.

i) PJ01, PJ02, PJ03 and PJ04 routes have to be integrated for the convenience of residents.

ii) The 400 metres radius area of the bus stops for PJ Free Bus must be accessible easily and safe by residents through walking and cycling.

iii) All information about the PJ Free Bus routes must be shown clearly at all bus stops

iv) Create more safe bicycle parks near the bus stops

v) Bus stops must have proper shelter from rain and sun.

2016 is the Year of Implementation for PJ’s Master Transportation plan. PJ Free Bus is playing very important role to improve participation of PJ residents in public transport. Spad’s support is critical in achieving our target of 35 percent public transport ridership in Petaling Jaya. MBPJ will continue to plan and implement better transportation system for PJ residents. Let’s move forward Sustainable Petaling Jaya 2030!

IR LEE SUET SEN is a councillor of MBPJ and chairperson of the PJ Master Transportation Plan.