In November 2011, SPAD, the Land Public Transport Commission published their draft master plan for Klang Valley’s future of public transportation. Public transport consists of more than rail based infrastructure, but rail is the most interesting because it costs billions of dollars and is certifiably more efficient than busses or other road based transport. And once you build it there’s no going back.
However, judging by past decisions with the 2 LRT systems, all everyone should have a say. In their draft proposal there are 2 phases.
Highlights include the completion of the Sungai Buloh – Kajang line, one half of the MRT circle line and a weird alignment of a North-South MRT line from Selayang and Kepong to Pandan.
The Sungai Buloh – Kajang line is much generally welcomed although with a few hiccups at Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang.
The Circle line, the next MRT line to be announced, is a crucial link to link all radial lines entering KL city centre. Also it will ease traffic in the city centre’s interchange stations and link dense developments like Mont Kiara and upcoming mega projects like Bandar Malaysia and Matrade Centre. Lastly, the Circle line will take over the Ampang line’s Ampang spur from Miharja to Ampang station. It won’t make a perfect circle by 2020, as its name suggests. This line makes sense provided they link it up sensibly with existing lines.
The MRT 3 line is when things get funky. It is meant to service the entire Jalan Ipoh/Jalan Kepong corridor but there might be overlaps with the existing Komuter line which SPAD seems to have forgone. They need to really think about his one.
There is a planned freight relief line that links up Subang to Sungai Buloh and that passes close to the old Subang airport. Presumably it will allow more passenger capacity on the KL Sentral bottle neck stretch in central KL and make it safer too. They are alternatively thinking of completely bypassing Klang Valley, which can make the existing KTM rail corridors operate fully as an intra-urban rail network like the LRTs or MRTs, but this will of course cost a lot more money to build new lines from Seremban towards Klang and Klang towards Serendah. Worth spending?
Lastly, they want to extend the monorail to Mid Valley and southward bound towards Kuchai Lama commercial district. Is that worth the money? Should it link up all the way with another line and risk overloading the monorail line? Or should it even extend pass Mid Valley?
There are two projects slated for completion according to the draft, the LRT 3 and the MRT Line 3’s extension towards Serdang and Putrajaya(really?). I find both these lines highly questionable.
The LRT 3 line extends from the Kelana Jaya LRT station towards Klang. That are a lot of stations between Klang and KL. It was not too long ago that the Kelana Jaya line was overloaded before they bought all those new trains, and with the new extension in Subang Jaya, is SPAD out of its mind?
As for the MRT line, Serdang is the main point of interest, but the thing is Serdang is already serviced by the KTM Komuter. So SPAD has also lost hope in KTM? Putrajaya is still largely undeveloped and not as dense as Serdang. So why go there?
An orbital line is a line that caters for traffic that moves around in a circle instead of to and from the city centre. In the draft plan, they talked about the need for such a line through PJ. This has to do with the fact that the north south traffic on the LDP corridor is too heavy. Development along this corridor has quadrupled over the past decade and more is on the way.
They had planned for a bus rapid transit to serve the corridor, but without new infrastructure, there is absolutely no way the poor LDP can cope. But the planners are also hesitant to build along the LDP corridor because the area is built up. There isn’t enough space so much as to thread a needle.
But the need remains. The MRT line in Kota Damansara and LRT lines to Subang and Puchong are so long. A person from Puchong has to interchange near KL just to go to Kota Damansara. See the blue swath representing the corridor in question.
The LRT line from Kelana Jaya to Subang Jaya appears to be part of this corridor, and could handle the traffic. But a couple of missing links are needed; a link around Sunway, and a link from Kelana Jaya to the Kota Damansara line. Otherwise, people might not think it is worth the time and effort to interchange between the 3 radial lines. Building a Sunway link itself is justified, as the Sunway development has completely overwhelmed the local roads. (They are expanding Sunway Pyramid again)
And lastly, if they are going to build LRT 3 line to Klang, you cannot link it up at the Kelana Jaya line LRT line and overload it, so they might as well extend it to interchange with the MRT line because only that can handle the anticipated traffic.
Some links:
SPAD's Draft Plan
However, judging by past decisions with the 2 LRT systems, all everyone should have a say. In their draft proposal there are 2 phases.
Phase 1: Network by 2020
Highlights include the completion of the Sungai Buloh – Kajang line, one half of the MRT circle line and a weird alignment of a North-South MRT line from Selayang and Kepong to Pandan.
The Sungai Buloh – Kajang line is much generally welcomed although with a few hiccups at Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang.
 |
| Excerpt from SPAD's Draft Greater KL/ Klang Valley Land Public Transport Master Plan. |
The Circle line, the next MRT line to be announced, is a crucial link to link all radial lines entering KL city centre. Also it will ease traffic in the city centre’s interchange stations and link dense developments like Mont Kiara and upcoming mega projects like Bandar Malaysia and Matrade Centre. Lastly, the Circle line will take over the Ampang line’s Ampang spur from Miharja to Ampang station. It won’t make a perfect circle by 2020, as its name suggests. This line makes sense provided they link it up sensibly with existing lines.
The MRT 3 line is when things get funky. It is meant to service the entire Jalan Ipoh/Jalan Kepong corridor but there might be overlaps with the existing Komuter line which SPAD seems to have forgone. They need to really think about his one.
There is a planned freight relief line that links up Subang to Sungai Buloh and that passes close to the old Subang airport. Presumably it will allow more passenger capacity on the KL Sentral bottle neck stretch in central KL and make it safer too. They are alternatively thinking of completely bypassing Klang Valley, which can make the existing KTM rail corridors operate fully as an intra-urban rail network like the LRTs or MRTs, but this will of course cost a lot more money to build new lines from Seremban towards Klang and Klang towards Serendah. Worth spending?
Lastly, they want to extend the monorail to Mid Valley and southward bound towards Kuchai Lama commercial district. Is that worth the money? Should it link up all the way with another line and risk overloading the monorail line? Or should it even extend pass Mid Valley?
Phase 2: Network by 2030
 |
| Excerpt from SPAD's Draft Greater KL/ Klang Valley Land Public Transport Master Plan. |
The LRT 3 line extends from the Kelana Jaya LRT station towards Klang. That are a lot of stations between Klang and KL. It was not too long ago that the Kelana Jaya line was overloaded before they bought all those new trains, and with the new extension in Subang Jaya, is SPAD out of its mind?
As for the MRT line, Serdang is the main point of interest, but the thing is Serdang is already serviced by the KTM Komuter. So SPAD has also lost hope in KTM? Putrajaya is still largely undeveloped and not as dense as Serdang. So why go there?
Outer Orbital Line
They had planned for a bus rapid transit to serve the corridor, but without new infrastructure, there is absolutely no way the poor LDP can cope. But the planners are also hesitant to build along the LDP corridor because the area is built up. There isn’t enough space so much as to thread a needle.
But the need remains. The MRT line in Kota Damansara and LRT lines to Subang and Puchong are so long. A person from Puchong has to interchange near KL just to go to Kota Damansara. See the blue swath representing the corridor in question.
The LRT line from Kelana Jaya to Subang Jaya appears to be part of this corridor, and could handle the traffic. But a couple of missing links are needed; a link around Sunway, and a link from Kelana Jaya to the Kota Damansara line. Otherwise, people might not think it is worth the time and effort to interchange between the 3 radial lines. Building a Sunway link itself is justified, as the Sunway development has completely overwhelmed the local roads. (They are expanding Sunway Pyramid again)
And lastly, if they are going to build LRT 3 line to Klang, you cannot link it up at the Kelana Jaya line LRT line and overload it, so they might as well extend it to interchange with the MRT line because only that can handle the anticipated traffic.
Some links:
SPAD's Draft Plan
I love your article & opinion. You are brilliant. Should apply to PM Najib for SPAD Head.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with the "missing links"..
The article is worth reading, I like it very much. Have a good day! And I hope you will go on to share your new ideas.
ReplyDelete