Next stop: Passengers riding the Putrajaya MRT during the first day of operation on March 16.
PETALING JAYA: Rail ridership in the Klang Valley saw a significant hike in March following the opening of the second phase of the Putrajaya MRT from Kampung Batu to Putrajaya Sentral.
According to Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, operator of the MRT, LRT, monorail and Sunway BRT networks, ridership across all lines saw a significant increase following the full opening of the Putrajaya MRT on March 16.
The Putrajaya MRT saw the largest spike, with 2,036,718 users travelling through it in March, compared to only 541,466 in February, when it served only stations between Kwasa Damansara and Kampung Batu.
Averaged across the weekdays, the Putrajaya MRT moved nearly 88,553 passengers daily in March, significantly more than the 28,498 seen in February.
This spike may have been due to many taking joy rides or just testing out the Putrajaya MRT as it was free to use from March 16 to 31.
Meanwhile, the Kelana Jaya LRT maintained its position as the most well-used urban rail line, moving an average of 282,154 users on a weekday in March, higher than February, where 281,591 were recorded.
The spillover effect of the Putrajaya MRT was seen mostly in the Kajang MRT ridership, which saw 5,525,715 users in March versus 4,392,381 in February.
Averaged across the number of working days in each respective month, March saw 240,248 users daily versus 231,178 in February.
Even the KL Monorail saw significantly higher total ridership in March, registering 1,580,507 users, while February saw only 1,311,483.
Over the long term, ridership of urban rail is expected to increase following better connectivity and the ironing out of longstanding improvement and/or rehabilitation work to existing lines spanning the LRT (Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines) and KL Monorail (replacement of two-car to four-car sets).
Other equally critical work includes the long-running Klang Valley Double Track (KVDT) rehabilitation project by KTM Bhd, with Phase 1 expected to be completed by August after years of delay, while Phase 2 of KVDT rehab may take up to seven years.
On April 6, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said it was still too early to assess the effectiveness of the Putrajaya MRT in reducing traffic congestion.
On March 21, public transport ridership under Prasarana’s network breached a million a day again, the first since Malaysia entered the “transition to endemic” phase of Covid-19.
This figure is the combination of rail and bus ridership in the Klang Valley, Penang and Kuantan, and was observed on March 21.
“This is a leap from the average of 846,000 passengers daily from Jan 1 to March 15,” said Prasarana in a statement on March 25.
Rail ridership took the largest leap, with 767,000 passengers daily, while bus services served 235,000 passengers daily, the highest figure since the pandemic began.
Prior to the pandemic, an average of 1.2 million passengers used Prasarana’s rail and bus services on a weekday.
This latest achievement takes into account an average of 100,000 passengers who use the Putrajaya MRT since the full opening of the line on March 16.
