THREE new corridors covering 47km of bus lanes will be introduced in Kuala Lumpur, marking the next phase of the city’s transit initiative.
Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd (Rapid Bus) had previously rolled out bus lanes in Jalan Kelang Lama (starting August 2024), Jalan Genting Klang (November 2023) and Jalan Ampang (July 2023) via a trial project, and they have since been approved for permanent implementation.
The three new bus lanes will be introduced in Jalan Ipoh (12km) and Jalan Cheras (23km) in the fourth quarter of this year, and Jalan Gombak (12km) in the fourth quarter of next year, Rapid Bus said in a statement in reply to StarMetro’s queries on the new bus lanes.
“The expansion is expected to benefit approximately 21,000 passengers daily across 14 trunk routes, particularly for those travelling between outer urban areas and the city centre.
“More than 101 buses will also be involved in the expansion.
“The operating hours are expected to follow the existing bus lane operating model which is from 6am to 8pm on working days, excluding weekends and public holidays,” Rapid Bus said.
“Existing bus lanes have reduced the buses’ travel times by five to 20 minutes, with average bus speeds increasing from approximately 10km/h to 20km/h during peak hours.
“This contributed to more consistent bus arrival times and better service frequency, while increasing bus ridership across the corridors.
“Jalan Genting Klang recorded the highest increase, with ridership increasing by about 91%, while Jalan Ampang and Jalan Kelang Lama also recorded steady increases in passenger numbers,” it said.
In March, Rapid Bus completed a proof-of-concept trial for an artificial intelligence-powered automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) dashboard camera system, installed on selected buses to monitor bus lane enforcement in existing corridors.
“During the trial period, which started last October, more than 7,000 images under various weather and lighting conditions were captured and analysed.
“The findings showed encouraging detection accuracy rates benchmarked against international standards.
“The system also proved its capability to support enforcement by clearly capturing vehicle registration numbers, locations, dates and times,” it elaborated.
Rapid Bus said the initiative remained under evaluation and required input from Transport Ministry, the Road Transport Department and Kuala Lumpur City Hall before a wider rollout could be considered.
It was earlier reported that the system detected more than 1,300 motorists encroaching into the bus lanes daily.
Rapid Bus added that enforcement was only applicable during the bus lanes’ operating hours, which meant motorists were allowed to use the lanes outside the operating periods.
