Over 100 feeder buses to complement MRT service

Passengers can use feeder buses from any MRT station to get to and from the city. — Photos: Art Chen/The Star

ALONGSIDE the Phase One MRT service, feeder buses as well as Park-and-Ride facilities will be operational this Friday.

A total of 107 feeder buses will service 25 routes originating from each MRT station to popular locations such as KL Sentral and Subang Airport as well as residential areas such as Bukit Rahman Putra and SS22 Damansara Jaya.

With the fare set at RM1, the bus is equipped with a cash ticketing system and Touch 'N Go.

Each bus has a capacity of 62 people at one time, out of which there are 28 seats and space for 34 people to stand.

Feeder Bus and Infrastructure Planning head Rudyanto Azhar said an additional 250 new bus stops were added bringing the total to 390 operational bus stops.

“With the new bus stops in place, we hope more people will leave their cars at home and walk to the nearest bus stop.

“A smaller-sized bus was chosen to accommodate more routes especially within residential areas where the lanes are smaller.

“We provide the buses and Prasarana maintains the operations and handles all customer service related matters,” he said.

On top of the new feeder buses, Rapid KL buses will service passengers who wish to travel from Phileo Damansara, Pusat Bandar Daman­sara and Semantan stations to KL Sentral and Bangsar LRT station.

Route T800 will service passengers traveling from Phileo Damansara, Pusat Bandar Damansara and Semantan stations to KL Sentral while Route T850 will service passengers traveling from Pusat Bandar Damansara and Semantan stations to Bangsar LRT station and KL Sentral.

All buses are equipped with six CCTV cameras, emergency hammer and a driver’s Panic Button for the safety of all passengers.

Park-and-ride facilities

Six stations are equipped with park and ride facilities with an approximate 4,000 parking bays for cars and motorcycles.

They are at Sungai Buloh, Kwasa Damansara, Kwasa Sentral, Bandar Utama, Phileo Damansara and Pusat Bandar Damansara stations.

From Dec 16, five stations will have their park-and-ride facilities operational, with the exception of Phileo Damansara where service will only commence early 2017.

An MRT employee showing the special First Day Rider Touch ‘n Go card.

Commercial and Land Manage­ment director Datuk Haris Fadzilah Hassan said they will not wait for Phase 2 to begin in order to open the Phileo Damansara park-and-ride facility.

“The facility is scheduled to be completed in January or February next year. As soon as it is ready, we will open it for public use.

“The six stations will also be equipped with bicycle parking,” he said.

It will cost RM4.30 per entry for cars and RM1.10 per entry for motorcycles into each park-and-ride facility.

Haris added that almost all park-and-ride facilities will use Touch ‘n Go only except for the Bandar Utama station, which will have a cash payment option.

“Those who park at the station but do not use the MRT will be charged on an hourly basis.

A policeman showing a large screen which shows live CCTV feeds at the station.

“Our systems can track a person’s usage based on their Touch ‘n Go card which taps into the park-and-ride and then the MRT,” he said.

For details on all services, call the RapidKL Helpline at 03-7885 2585 from 7am to 8.30pm on weekdays and 8.30am to 5.30pm on weekends (closed on public holidays) or visit www.rapidkl.com.my