INTENSE debate exploded in social media after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak reportedly said that someone told him our (Sungai Buloh-Kajang) MRT line is better than the New York City Subway and London Underground. His political nemeses definitely are not going to agree with this bold statement and neither would those Malaysians who think the West is the best at everything.
As someone who is currently living a stone’s throw away from New York City, I can vouch for the Prime Minister – at least for now. While it is not fair to compare our newly-launched MRT with the 113-year-old NYC Subway, it is also not right to ridicule the PM’s statement because of differences in political ideology or just because it came from him. Credit must be given when it’s due.
The NYC Subway is often regarded as one of the most famous underground rapid transit systems in the world. It has nearly 500 stations, more than 1,000km track, carries close to 1.8 billion riders every year, operates 24/7, and keeps New York City alive.
I once envied NYC for this system and wished that Malaysia could have one just like it. But that was before I learnt that it is beset by serious problems.
The good thing about the Subway is that it is still in operation. But there is a long list of problems that are leaving commuters disgruntled every day.
Delays have increased significantly from 28,000 cases per month in 2012 to more than 70,000 recently. Its reliability – a measure of distance subway trains travel between breakdowns – decreased to 190,000km this year from 320,000km in 2016. On-time performance has also decreased for majority of the lines, the lowest being 33%.
One of the lines once ran with an impressive 94% on-time performance but it is now declining to 70%. Countless cases of people trapped underground, derailed trains, and emergency evacuations are now tormenting Subway customers.
A number of reasons have been identified for the subway’s declining performance: aging trains, outdated signal systems, lack of financial support, poor maintenance, overcrowding and local politics. Maintenance budgets are often neglected due to political reasons. In order to reduce government spending, less money is being channelled to public transportation on the basis that the trains are still running.
This mentality has been floating around for years while the subway is slowly being crippled from the inside. When the system finally breaks down, the cost of repairing it would amount to more than what the maintenance costs would have been. The signal system, which dates back to before World War II, has failed to properly manage the more complicated rail network, leading to delays. It is possible to transform the entire signal system but it would take about 50 years at the cost of US$20bil.
Our MRT is still at its infancy and we have a lot to do to make sure it will still be working 100 years from now. To say that we are the best in world is not an overstatement but we also cannot be too complacent with it. We should ask ourselves whether we can still claim to be the best in the world 50 years from now and what we can do to ensure we won’t repeat the mistakes made by the NYC Subway.
Everyone has a role to play to keep our MRT safe and secure. We must refrain from littering. Some Subway trains have caught fire due to litter left on the track.
Looking at the pictures of our MRT stations, I am impressed by their modern interiors. I am very proud of our MRT now and hopefully I can still be in the coming years.
NOORSYAZWAN NAZRI
New Jersey, USA
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