Gov't subsidy for stage buses to be made more efficient: minister
The Transport Ministry will review the efficiency of government subsidies for stage buses, its minister Anthony Loke said today.
Pointing out that the government had spent over RM100 million for the Interim Stage Bus Support Fund (ISBSF), Loke said the ministry wanted to see how they could cover more route networks through the subsidy initiative.
The Transport Ministry will review the efficiency of government subsidies for stage buses, its minister Anthony Loke said today.
Pointing out that the government had spent over RM100 million for the Interim Stage Bus Support Fund (ISBSF), Loke said the ministry wanted to see how they could cover more route networks through the subsidy initiative.
"Now, the subsidy we are giving to the ISBSF is for bus companies to carry out their services (on less profitable routes).
"In the past few years, we have spent over RM100 million but of course this was not enough as many states are in need (of more stage bus services) and we have yet to cover many areas.
"What we are looking at is how to make the existing subsidy more efficient in terms of covering more route networks," he told reporters after the launching ceremony for the “My100” and “My50” Unlimited Travel Pass initiative at KL Sentral this morning.
Loke said this when explaining to reporters the ministry's plan to widen such initiatives to lower the people's cost of living.
The ISBSF is a fund was set up to cover the shortfalls in stage bus operators' daily operations especially on routes that are less profitable to operate.
This was aimed at ensuring they continued to service these routes thus providing a better public transportation network for the public.
On the unlimited travel pass initiative which would be available for the RapidKL's Klang Valley rail and bus services starting next year, Loke said the ministry intended to widen it to other parts of the country.
He said they started with the Klang Valley as much of the country's infrastructures was concentrated here.
More ridership the aim
The later stages will see the scheme widened to cities which have Prasarana Malaysia Bhd's (Prasarana) Rapid bus services including Penang and Kuantan as well as major urban centres like Johor Bahru.
"Next year, one of the cities which needs our attention is Kota Kinabalu because it has very poor stage bus (network) […] JB is another major city.
"We will look at big cities first as to how we can promote the use of public transport there."
Prasarana is a major transport corporation under the federal government. Under the unlimited travel pass initiative, Malaysian citizens are entitled to unlimited use of RapidKL rail and bus services by paying a monthly fee of RM100.
Those who prefer only bus services can opt for its the “My50” pass for half the price.
Loke told reporters that for the “My100” scheme, the government will subsidise RM100 for each of the first 120,000 passes which totals up to a RM120 million allocation.
However, the amount of subsidy will go down if they can get more ridership with the government only having to pay RM4 million to subsidise 200,000 passes.
This, he added, was among the reasons they aimed to get as much ridership as possible.
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