Netizens have expressed concern that they may have to put up with crowded trains following the Finance Ministry's announcement of cost-cutting measures for the LRT3 project.

This includes the cancellation of six stations, using three-car trains instead of six-car trains, reducing the total number of trains from 42 sets to 22 sets and shelving costly acceleration techniques that will extend the completion date from 2020 to 2024.

While many took to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng's and the Finance Ministry's Facebook pages to laud the move for saving around RM15.02 billion in taxpayers' money, others expressed concern for the quality of service once the project is completed.

One commenter, Yong Min Ken, said he was worried about using a three-car train instead of a six-car train.

"A six-coach train set will be more comfortable to ride in, compared to being packed like a sardine can, like how it is in the Kelana Jaya train-sets with only two coaches. It’s good for future-proofing too.

"There also should be a sufficient amount of train-sets that are on standby for whenever the other train-sets are under maintenance or having issues," he said.

Yong said the train stations should not be redesigned simply to save cost, and that future growth in commuter numbers should be taken into account as any later extension or alteration could be costlier.

"The LRT3 needs to be built in the right way from the beginning to ensure that people will be using it.

"It will be penny-wise but pound-foolish to cut cost just for the sake of cutting cost, but reducing the quality of service that could be provided to the passengers, now and in the future," said Yong.

Echoing this was Shahiir Bahgia, who said: "Due to the growing population density in Klang Valley and greater Kuala Lumpur, it is unreasonable to use a three-coach LRT.

"Also, if the LRT stations are made smaller, it will be uncomfortable and turn many commuters off. LRT3 will become like the Kelana Jaya LRT that can't support a large number of commuters.

"Don't repeat the design mistake of the Kelana Jaya LRT," said Shahiir.

Meanwhile, Han Ming Ong said: "Three-car train might be insufficient for ridership at peak hour. Please refer to Kelana Jaya line (which uses) four-car train".

"Please do not reduce the size of the trains to three cars, it will end up being like the Monorails and the Kelana Jaya LRT," said Kousuke Namihira.

Malek Saad said it was okay to do away with "luxurious" designs for the stations.

"But do not cut cost on basic facilities or the number of stations," he said.

This morning, Lim had announced a number of cost-cutting measures after the initial RM10 billion cost of the LRT3 project ballooned to RM31.65 billion.

He explained that the shelving of five stations was due to the "very low" projected ridership.

However, he said the shelved stations may be built in future if there was demand.

Furthermore, Lim said the 22 three-car trains will be sufficient to cope with demand until 2035 before additional three-car trains will need to be ordered.