PETALING JAYA: Public transport ridership under the Prasarana Malaysia Bhd network breached a million a day again, the first since Malaysia entered the “transition to endemic” phase of Covid-19.
This figure is the combination of rail and bus ridership in the Klang Valley, Penang and Kuantan, and was observed on March 21.
“This is a leap from the average of 846,000 passengers daily from Jan 1 to March 15,” said Prasarana in a statement yesterday on its average ridership during working days.
Rail ridership took the largest leap with 767,000 passengers daily, while bus services served 235,000 passengers daily, the highest figure since the pandemic began.
Prior to the pandemic, an average of 1.2 million passengers used Prasarana’s rail and bus services on a weekday.
This latest achievement takes into account an average of 100,000 passengers that use the Putrajaya MRT since the full opening of the line on March 16.
This line, including its dedicated feeder buses, is currently free to use until the end of this month.
“We would like to thank all customers for using our services and endeavour to ensure safety, efficiency and reliability for users,” it said.
Just like the pre-pandemic period, the Kelana Jaya LRT remains the country’s most well used urban rail line, registering 5,350,230 passengers in February.
On workdays in February, the LRT services transport an average of 281,591 passengers, which is not too far from its all time high of around 330,000 before the pandemic.
The Kajang MRT is the second highest, registering 4,392,381 riders in February, or 231,178 passengers on a typical weekday.
Bus ridership in the Klang Valley is slightly more than Kajang MRT passengers, coming in at 4,430,186 that month, or an average of 233,167 passenger on a weekday.
Total ridership could have been higher if not for the suspension of LRT services between the Bandaraya and Masjid Jamek stations since Jan 27, which was caused by structural damage in the supporting pier of the railway next to the Bandaraya station.
