I REFER to the media reports last week about Putrajaya being in talks with Grab to help ferry MRT commuters. In the reports, the finance minister’s political secretary Tony Pua was quoted as saying that the government is in talks with home grown e-hailing company Grab to provide transport services to commuters.
“Now we have new ventures, new innovative digital technologies like Grab, who can help us defray the cost of some of the public transport expenditure. Why should you provide feeder buses if you can work with Grab?
“They can actually arrive and give door-to-door delivery from MRT to commuters’ homes at reasonable price and at a cost that will be cheaper than us (the government) supplying feeder buses,” he told a panel during the “Malaysia: A new dawn” conference in Kuala Lumpur last week.
We appreciate the hard work and effort by Pua and others in the government to manage the country’s fiscal deficit and debt. However, the idea of using Grab cars to replace feeder buses is unacceptable, too simplistic and lacks thorough study as it doesn’t take into consideration many other implications like traffic congestion, pollution, hardship to the poor and marginalised, and other hidden costs.
Countries all over the world are moving towards promoting the use of public transport (instead of cars) as an efficient, cost-effective, reliable and safe means of commuting while helping to reduce pollution. Here, we are trying to do just the opposite!
Feeder buses play an important role in the overall transport system and provide the “first and last mile” connectivity for passengers to reach their destinations. The feeder buses were introduced to provide the essential links to and from the MRT stations at an affordable price.
As the feeder buses are an integral part of the overall MRT system, removing them will “cripple” the system and jeopardise its overall operations, connectivity, reliability and efficiency. This will further reduce usage of the MRT system.
Pua and his colleagues need to constantly remind themselves that they are now the government of the day. Hence, they must realise that it is important to consult all the stakeholders (including taxi companies in this case) and the public at large before implementing any decision affecting them.
It is also the duty and responsibility of the government to give due consideration to the poor and marginalised groups who may depend solely on public transport to move around. To the poor, affordability is a major issue. The fare for the feeder bus service is RM1 per trip. Concession fare (50% discount) is given to senior citizens, persons with disabilities and students. The fare charged by Grab is between six and 10 times (or perhaps even more during peak hours) higher than the fare for the feeder bus.
To persons with disabilities, in addition to affordability, accessibility is a major concern. Currently, all the feeder buses are equipped with wheelchair-friendly features such as ramps, dedicated spaces and special alert buttons whereas none of the taxis or Grab cars are wheelchair accessible.
Advocates for people with disabilities have come a long way and undergone long years of struggle in lobbying for wheelchair accessible buses to be brought in to cater to the diverse needs of the commuters. To many of us who were involved in the lobbying, the news to replace feeder buses with Grab cars is, to say the least, disheartening and heartbreaking.
The issue here is not about the quality of Grab car or taxi services. It is about affordability and accessibility. It is about choices and having more options.
The government needs to do a lot more to encourage people to use public transport. Consultations should be done from time to time with the stakeholders and users to get feedback on ways and means to improve the public transport system.
Perhaps the government should also explore other means of saving cost without causing much hardship and inconvenience to the poor and marginalised groups. Removing the feeder buses can be seen as taking the easy way out. Feeder buses are an integral part of the MRT system and cannot be replaced with Grab cars. These should complement the services of feeder buses and give additional options to those who can afford them and who prefer door-to-door service.
CHRISTINE LEE
For Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport (BEAT)
V. MURUGESWARAN
DAMAI Disabled Person Association Malaysia
https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/10/17/feeder-buses-more-affordable/