Transforming The Rail Industry In Malaysia With Prasarana

“Good public transportation services is not the only catalyst that ensures the success of major cities; the other elements and characteristics that make a major city unique to the world and its own environment are just as important.”

How many of you recall how difficult public transportation was in urban areas such as the Klang Valley? And this would have rung especially true for working professionals in the mid 90’s. Well, all that has changed with Prasarana.

Prasarana is a fully owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) incorporated, functioning like any other organisation in a private entity.

Possessing a full mandate to improve and enhance public transportation services for both rail and buses, the company also aims to contribute 40% towards the public transportation model share versus private transportation by the year 2030. With such ambitions, the company has to continually find strategic ways to improve the usage of public transportations.

Many assume it to be strongly associated with capital’s Rapid KL bus services, when in fact Prasarana is the umbrella body that encompasses both the Rapid rail and bus lines, as well as holds a new subsidiary known as Prasarana Rail and Infrastructure Projects Sdn Bhd (PRAISE).

Although this arm of the company places more emphasis on major public transportation infrastructure (previously managed by the Prasarana’s project development division), PRAISE is more than that. In fact, its scope of duties and functions include initiating collaborations with external parties on new projects, such as the success of the Bus Rapid Transit involving the Sunway Line project under a public private partnership formula.

 

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (TOD)

“Good public transportation services is not the only catalyst that ensures the success of major cities; the other elements and characteristics that make a major city unique to the world and its own environment are very important, too,” said Azmi.  

He said that the success of each city in the world relates well to its own uniqueness and to their environment. For example we have the underground tube for London, the system spanned 402 kilometres of track and it serves 270 stations.

In fact, he does not think that emulating the success of other cities is a good idea if we simply try to assimilate their characteristics into our own country. Instead, Azmi is keen on identifying the key factors of success of each city in order to localise it and suit Malaysia’s environment.

“Prasarana is not into property development per se — we promote public transportation and anything that will help improve, increase and enhance public transportation in this country,” shared Azmi.

He mentioned that the company’s management has been looking into ideas on how to improve or provide more activities in LRT rail stations for a more vibrant environment, either by the end of this year or next year.

Today, LRT rail stations are designed and mostly patroned by people ‘on-the-go’, where all one needs is a ticket and to board the train.

But Prasarana is exploring the possibility of changing that — it plans to transform some of the LRT rail stations into more than just a stopover for its commuters. Their ideal LRT rail station would be a place where commuters purchase personal items, or even meet friends for a teh tarik session.

“We are looking to expand the space of rail stations and that will relate to optimising our land bank. So it is not about generating profit on the property side, rather it is about working on developing property for the public’s benefit,” shared Azmi.

Currently, Prasarana is enhancing the development of all new lines such as LRT 3, as the company is planning to go big and early in certain areas identified for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) by replicating the city’s iconic KL Sentral Station.

“Although the success of this particular LRT station was just by chance and not a planned TOD, we wanted to put our experience to good use for so the public can benefit from.”

With the public eye on the new LRT lines’ construction and high-riding expectations for the convenience that it will bring them in near future, Prasarana is working with various business partners to create and build the TOD effectively and efficiently.

“As we move into building TOD, the Government has set certain guidelines on how to recognise such areas, as well as how incentives can be formulated to reward private entities for participating in these collaborations,” shared Azmi.

“With the help of these guidelines, we hope to assist developers in quickly understanding what benefits they can obtain if they participate in TOD programmes, and that includes plot ratio.” he explained.

“Prasarana wants to work with private developers who are equally passionate about the Government’s commitment to public transport. It is not just about the Government putting in the money and private developers making money out of it — private developers should also contribute through corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts and this is the opportunity.” he said.

Currently in the pipeline are four TODs that are being planned along the LRT line extension at four fast-developing locations with large and available brown fields – an urban planning term used to describe land previously for industry or commercial use.

They include Ara Damansara which is near their depot, Glenmarie which is the road next to the Subang airport, IOI as well as Awam Besar. As a matter of fact, Prasarana did not have to acquire any private properties.

 

CHALLENGES

As TOD is a new concept in Malaysia, challenges in and out of Prasarana are not unusual.

“The programmes and the developments for public transportation that were under PEMANDU’s charge through the NKRA (National Key Results Areas) 1.0 initiative  are meeting target numbers, even though it experienced a quiet season after the first line of monorail and LRT was completed,” said Azmi.

The GTP 1.0 addressed the problem of congestion by introducing 35 four-car sets for the Kelana Jaya LRT line in 2011, increasing the daily passenger capacity to 258,156 passengers from 254,745 in 2010.

As a result, 10.4 million or 18% more commuters travelled on the line, which has been the most congested for many years, compared to 2010. This translated into a ridership of about 44,170 passengers during peak periods. In terms of the KTM Komuter service, four six-car sets started operations in March 2012, helping to ease the morning rush by increasing the ridership an additional 32,000 persons.

Rail usage presently contributes to about 40% of the daily public transport ridership.

“Prasarana, SPAD and PEMANDU are looking at ways to ensure that when they invest in certain transport infrastructures, these projects will continue to advance in future. Because apart from building these infrastructures, developing resources is one of the expertise that the industry shares and is part of our responsibility.”

Unfortunately like any other industry, Prasarana is experiencing the lack of talents as previously trained workers with the right skills have ventured into other fields, resulting not only in the Company losing valuable expertise, but also manpower to accomplish projects in the railway industry.

“If we do not promote these initiatives at all, neither of it will continue in future if this group of experts – who are Malaysians – are no longer with us to help us expand and improve the country’s infrastructure” highlighted Azmi.

 

UPCOMING DEVELOPMENTS FROM PRASARANA

For interested parties or developers who are wanting to explore opportunities in Prasarana’s TOD projects, Azmi advises to first do their homework, “It is best to know your stuff in order to put up a unique and attractive proposal. We are personally excited to partner up with others but Prasarana needs to be convinced that the proposal will improve the lives of average Malaysians.”

Besides TOD, Prasarana is also open to forming joint-venture developments in seven sites that have been identified. One of the many good examples would be the Dang Wangi Station, where an area is being prepped for a 40-storey building above the existing structure of the station.  

“Right now we are working with a partner on this joint venture, where they are going to provide all the finances for the construction whilst Prasarana provides the site to them,” explained Azmi.

At the same time, Prasarana is set to roll out other Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) services and currently, once the details are confirmed by government agencies like SPAD and PEMANDU. This project will be for the upcoming KL-Klang BRT line over the Federal Highway, where it will curb all its congestion points along that highway.

 

CONCLUSION

“Prasarana would very much like to receive feedback as well as constructive criticism from the public via its online and offline channels. This is to help the Company look beyond its vision while continuously enhancing the public transport experience for all Malaysians.” said Azmi.