Card migration still an ordeal

PETALING JAYA: The migration of Prasarana Malaysia Bhd’s stored-value fare cards to Touch ’n Go cards is still a painful experience for those electing to do it at Kuala Lumpur’s Pasar Seni bus hub.

An irate student, Dominic Lee, called The Star to complain that when he reached Pasar Seni at 6.45am yesterday, there were nearly 100 people ahead of him waiting for the counters to open at 7am.

“I decided to leave as I had to attend a 10am meeting at my college,” he said, adding that most of those in the line were students.

Lee’s friend, who arrived at Pasar Seni at 5.45am, was given No. 35 and received his new card after 8am.

Lee was also told by his friend that those who arrived after 9.45am were turned away.

Most people go to Pasar Seni because it was the only place over the past few years – until late last week – to apply for concession cards, which entitles the bearer to enjoy half-priced rides on the MRT, LRT, monorail, BRT and Rapid KL buses.

Prasarana only opened additional card migration facilities at the Subang Jaya and Awan Besar LRT stations shortly before Hari Raya. Even then, students have complained about long queues at Subang Jaya. Fourth former Yew Kar Mun waited nearly four hours for her card on her second attempt at card migration following a futile visit to Pasar Seni last week.

The only exception was the service for senior citizens who went to Subang Jaya or Awan Besar. Almost every one of them gave Prasarana the thumbs up because they were able to exchange their cards in less than 15 minutes.

As of 7pm yesterday, the Pasar Seni, Subang Jaya and Awan Besar counters processed 1,600, 867, and 727 cards respectively.

It is believed that Prasarana needs to process more than 2,000 cards daily in order to meet the July 15 deadline.

Its records show that it issued around 68,000 concession cards in the past.

Prasarana president and group CEO Datuk Seri Azmi Aziz has apologised for the inconvenience.

“We opened our counters (at Pasar Seni) during Hari Raya but the response was overwhelming,” he said yesterday.

Azmi acknowledged that while “the process is very good”, it’s about the waiting time.

The Pasar Seni, Subang Jaya, and Awan Besar migration counters are open from 7am to 7pm daily from now until July 15.

However, new concession card applications still have to be done at Pasar Seni because the other two stations are strictly for card migrations.

In the face of mounting criticism, Prasarana is setting up another card migration facility at the Sri Rampai station, six stops away from the KLCC station.

This facility is expected to be up and running by the end of this week.

More information can be found at myrapid.com.my or by calling 03-7885 2585.