Thursday February 3, 2011

Fourth MRT line may not be necessary

IT IS great to hear the alignment of the MRT third line will start from Klang town. This will include the city of Shah Alam (UITM, Pusat Bandar, Sek 9, Sek 13 and Glenmarie), Subang Jaya, Sunway, Petaling Jaya (State and Old Town) and Kuchai and Seputeh on its way to KL.

This corridor is actually the most developed, densely populated and right in the centre of Klang Valley or Greater KL.

This line should interchange with the LRT extension in Subang Jaya and KTM for wider commuter-based appeal.

The second line, which is the circle line surrounding outer KL “hot-spots” is also badly needed but it is very sensible of the Government to consider a circle line for Klang Valley that runs centre north-south or near the Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong (LDP) highway.

The LDP has the worst traffic condition and the highway has no space to expand.

To further justify this, the line will cross and interchange with at least four rail lines (from Puchong to 1Utama) hence providing broader commuter potential, seamless connectivity and journey.

We may not need a fourth MRT line to achieve this but merely a spur-line from the MRT Orange Line at just a fraction of the total cost. The spur-line concept can also be applied to the Sg Buloh–Kajang trunk line to cover Kepong or Serdang.

The only spur-line in our system is at the Chan Sow Lin LRT station where the trunk line from KL is split to Ampang and Bukit Jalil and we can see how successful they are.

It is good that the Government is announcing details of all three MRT lines as we definitely need a holistic and total approach in building the Greater KL MRT so we can get the best plans with lower development and construction costs.

I can’t wait to view the proposed alignment and detailed station locations at next month’s public display.

IR AZMI,

Petaling Jaya.

News

Thursday February 3, 2011

Fourth MRT line may not be necessary