Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
There has been a debacle regarding the legendary KTM trains, whose Twitter admin recently took the liberty to announce that the KTM usage frequency is low, as well as stating that traffic jams could be reduced if more Malaysians were to use the service.
Source: @ktm_berhad
To no surprise, Malaysian netizens weren’t too happy with the claim, as more of them have had bad experiences riding the trains than they’ve had good ones.
One of the many negative responses to the tweet by KTM
But what is it about the commuter rail service that infuriates public transport users? After all, KTM has been around and running for almost 30 years now.
1. Unstrategic locations
The public transport systems in Malaysia do not cover every kilometre of every place. Netizens have emphasised the leceh-ness of even getting from where they are to point A, before actually commuting from point A to point B. With feeder buses not being a proper solution.
It ultimately defeats the purpose of a supposed convenient travel.
2. Malaysian timing bro
You guys probably already understood what I meant by that without even needing any context. The KTM is always late. Apparently the commuters are not an exception when it comes to Malaysian timing.
It doesn’t have a fixed day-to-day schedule, it varies every single day, so it’s really down to luck. You could arrive at the station at 9am sharp today and tomorrow, and be either 45 minutes early, or 10 minutes too late on both days.
This makes things difficult for everyday working users because it disrupts their daily commitments, and it doesn’t help that a public transportation fiasco is one of the more common excuses.
The cherry on top is when we’re being compared to our fellow neighbours. Yikes.
3. Breakdowns, literally and emotionally
As mentioned, the train carriages and the tracks have been around for the longest time. Which means it most definitely is either outdated, old, or simply needs servicing. In fact, the weary conditions of the commuter rail systems are probably the main reason for the inconsistent timing.
Imagine depending on public transport for your main means of travel, and unpredictably, having the entire train stop in the middle of your ride, delaying the entire journey.
Faulty facilities at stations like the digital boards for info notices are also brought up among Malaysians as to why they rather opt out of riding the commuter.
Image via @azfrrr
Netizens even took things into their own hands to challenge the CEO of KTM to experience the ride themselves
As usual, Malaysians have nothing short to fight back when it comes to statements that don’t sit well with them.
Image via Malaysia Education Info (And Homeschooling too)
The argument here is that it’s simple to make all the baseless claims they want about how taking the lowly-maintained, tardy, and inconsistent trains can be better for traffic. But they’ve conveniently left out all the problems that come with it. And of course they’ve left it out, because either they’re not aware of them, or that it doesn’t matter to the higherups enough.
Trust us, we would really love to use public transportation more often
But the matter of fact is, it brings more problems to us users than it does make our lives easier. Last mile connectivity is a real thing, and the under facilitated amenities are seriously a pain in the ass.
It’s simple, if you want to increase the number of users of your service, then you have to do something about it. Especially if we’re being compared to Singapore, that’s the worst.
For more stories like this, read: I’m Sick Of Driving To Get Anywhere – Reasons Why Malaysia Being So Car-Friendly Is A Bad Thing and As A Woman, Here’s Why I’m Afraid Of Taking The LRT and Walking Home
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