Johor government’s commitment to providing accessible healthcare continues with the extension of free shuttle bus services to Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) and Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) in 2024.
State works, transportation and infrastructure committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said the allocation would involve more than RM500,000.
He said this decision came after the service successfully benefitted over 47,000 users since its launch in January this year.
“The cost for the shuttle service to HSA is about RM483,000 while to HSI is RM101,376.
“The management cost is RM1,552,” he said when met at the lobby during the state assembly sitting at Bangunan Sultan Ismail in Kota Iskandar.
The route to HSA includes Larkin Sentral, Plaza Larkin overhead bridge, HSA and Mahmoodiah health clinic.
For HSI, the route covers Lotus’s Tebrau hypermarket, Sultan Ismail health clinic and HSI.
There are 35 daily trips to HSA and HSI, with buses running from 6.30am to 6pm (Sunday to Thursday) at 15-minute intervals.
Meanwhile, on Bas Muafakat Johor (BMJ), Mohamad Fazli said starting next year, Johor Public Transport Corporation (PAJ) together with local councils would be realigning less popular routes to optimise this free service.
“BMJ is a state government initiative providing free public transportation service to help reduce the cost of living faced by Malaysians,” he said.
“We hope this service will encourage more people to use public transportation, which will ease traffic congestion too.”
Mohamad Fazli said presently, there were 74 buses with 69 BMJ routes in operation involving Johor’s 16 local councils.
He said the service had been utilised 13 million times from April 2016 to this November.
“Since BMJ was launched in 2016, several routes have been added on each year, based on demand.
“PAJ always studies BMJ routes as there have been new residential and commercial areas that are expected to be a prospect for the free bus service.
“PAJ will also realign MBJ routes to connect Gemas-Johor Baru Electrified Double Track stations as well as ferry terminals to provide a public transport connectivity system,” he said.
