It happened again and yesterday I had to be the keeper of the bus stop for a good 40 minutes. According to the stipulated schedule, there will be a bus going to the LRT station every 20 minutes during off peak hours. But then why there’s no bus for 40 minutes?
I can just take the taxi and gulped the fare difference of almost 10 times that can buy me a breakfast and lunch. But if I didn’t waste that 40 minutes, then I would not know about yesterday’s schedule efficiency. And if dragged to court, I can be the main witness to what happened.
I’m sure there was only one bus within that 40 odd minutes, instead of two if according to the schedule coz there’s a few passengers standing by the time the bus came out of the housing area and hit the highway and it’s not even during peak hours!
Why the service not according to it’s schedule? Bas rosak? Kalau macam tu nak jejaki sejarah Intrakota dengan bas yang kerap rosak coz of poor maintenance and not serviced periodically? Or maybe ada pemandu sakit? Or maybe ada girl friend pemandu sakit? Or maybe ada bakal mak mentua pemandu sakit? But then, are the people doing the roster really know what they are doing or main hentam asal ada roster? Do they apply the element of planning, backup and forecast while drafting the roster? What about the element of contingency?
Traffic jam? Jangan cakap la alasan basi tu coz semua orang tahu about it sejak zaman sebelum bas mini lagi. But yesterday it’s still belum peak hours. Maybe mood a few bus operation staff not peaking up as usual…?
Remember the main reason why most people shun the bus services mentioned in my earlier posting? Well, those decision makers are the culprits who still want us to waste precious time with their inefficient schedules. Now it is very terang lagi bersuluh that our LRT service is of first world and the support system, especially the buses, represents the third world. Don’t point fingers at me yet but do think about it…
I really enjoyed the bus services in the first world countries like Japan (even Hong Kong) and a few in Europe that I’ve been to. Maybe di sini dia orang nak berbangga coz our services are better off than our neighbours Indonesia, Thailand and some part of the Philippine (jeepney’s the main stay). But what about Singapore? What about Hong Kong? As mentioned in my earlier posting, Singapore and Hong Kong are the nearest to us with very good bus service we can learn from.
To me the general formula is simple: Come up with a good schedule and operation staff must stick strictly to the timings, without any compromise. The driving public will be interested once they know that time loss taking the buses has been reduced drastically. Attract more passengers with time efficiency, not with new buses or young female drivers.
Over a year ago they started with the day ticketing system and I was very happy about it. Not so much about the saving or what nots but that’s the system being used in most first world countries. Take for example the public transport system in Italy, the last country I’ve been in Europe. There, you just buy a day use ticket at any appointed shops/stores and you are free to take (as many trips on) the trams and buses and a single journey on the train and LRTs.
Well… That’s why I was happy coz it’s similar to the first world countries system but alas, it’s short lived. They reverted to the old zoning system a few months ago. Why? A little & cheeky bird told me that it was due to complaints and lousy politicking. That’s the power of vested party's complaints and politics in our country eh?
Read my posting about attitude? If you had, then link attitude and what I’ve rambled above. Malaysia Boleh right? And in a friend’s posting about universities (somboonc.blogspot.com), it’s very clear that a few universities in Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and even Indonesia are far off better than us. Too much of grey matter migrating to the knee caps? That’s the offshoot of our loose enforcement and attitude problems? Think about it…
No comments:
Post a Comment