KL Monorail

I read in The Star Online that MTrans, the company that brought us the monorail in Kuala Lumpur (remember the freak incident where one of the tyres of the train broke loose and hit a pedestrian some time ago?) is proposing a line extension that would reach high populated areas like Subang Jaya, OUG and Puchong. There are 4 proposed lines namely the Subang Jaya (SJ)line, Petaling Jaya (PJ) line, Sungai Buloh line and the Cheras line. While I highly applaud the decision to improve public transportation that KL desperately needs, I beg to differ that this proposal will bring much benefit to my beloved city. Here are a few reasons why:

1. TIME. The monorail that is used right now is slow as a snail! A monorail is only beneficial for short distance transport as it has the capability to maneuver small roads and reach narrow or dense areas. Imagine, it took me about 10 minutes to get from KL Sentral to Hang Tuah station. That I think is a pretty short distance, waiting time included. Imagine taking the monorail all the way from Subang Jaya to the city! I would need to wake up at around 6.30am to reach work in the city which starts at 9am. That's about the normal time I get up to get to school which starts earlier!
2. CAPACITY & SIZE. Having only 2 puny coaches to cater for thousands of commuters in each of these highly populated townships is crazy! They claim that the monorails can extend its capacity to 4 coaches per train and fit 400 people. Are they counting 400 babies?!?!?! "Dude, have you ever sat on your own monorail? The last time I sat on it was during rush hour, the train wardon was standing there not to protect us from falling onto the lines, but to push us into the coaches and squeeze as many people in there as possible! The oversized western tourists in there were bowing their heads as the ceiling was too short. I'm 5'10" and my head is already almost brushing the ceiling!"... says my inner monoloque to the developers of the monorail.
   
3. PRACTICALITY & IMAGE. The proposed lines actually go into the most established townships that drive the majority of the blue collar workforce of KL. Sitting on a monorail to work just sounds lame. Do you want to boast your city being run by monorails or by an advanced mass transit system like AT LEAST the Light-Rail-Transit? In fact, it does not go directly to the city; referencing from USJ, it loops through Subang Jaya (pick up 300 people), Petaling Jaya (pick another 300 people), Sugai Buloh (another 100 people) THEN arrive KL and drop off passengers slowly. How can a monorail take that much. Next thing we know the coach drops its wheels, fall onto more pedestrians, and the whole coach just falls to the ground having said that it is MADE IN MALAYSIA! Enough said...
4. INTEGRATION. Okay, maybe I could have interchanged at one of the LRT stations where it has more capacity. But I want a seemless ride. I don't want to change too much right? So I take the Subang Jaya line. Oh wait, I have to pass through Puchong (pick up 500 people), Sri Sentosa (pick 200), OUG (another 200), Taman Desa (100 more). What more, this line runs closely parallel to the all the other current rail systems (KTM, Star, Putra).

This just won't work! To be able to commute comfortably, a more systematic system needs to be set up. Here's my 5 cents opinion on how the monorail should be set up.

1. Let the monorail be complements to the existing LRT system by being feeder lines to the LRT stations. For example, they can setup a link that connects passengers from the Sri Petaling LRT Station to the surrounding areas like Sri Petaling itself, OUG and Kuchai Lama. Or even connect commuters from the Abdullah Hukum Station its surrounding areas in PJ.
2. Have the monorail make more stops within the feeder route if you want to fill the coaches to have profitability. This will also encourage people to leave their cars at home effectively as people wouldn't want to walk too far. Currently, many people still have to drive to the LRT stations, find a parking space and take the ride to the city. Imagine having commuters literally leave their cars at home and walk to the Monorail station that arrives frequently (I say this because monorails have the capability to be more efficient in schedule than feeder busses).
   

The monorail should be feeders to the current LRT system, period. It hasn't got the capability to be main trunk rail lines to service the growing city. If the monorails were to complement the LRT, the LRTs should increase frequency (Star LRT) and increase capacity (adding more coaches for the Putra LRT). I say this because I notice that the Star LRT train lenght has entended the full lenght of the station platform and the Putra LRT with only 2 coaches hasn't reached the length of the platform. Most important of all, INTEGRATION! I can actually see all the way from the US the development of the city's transport system clearly as I go back periodically and notice the differences, that KL is doing alot to improve the transport system. I'm only worried that the government will non-chalantly approve proposals without studying them properly for the long run. Look what happened to Star, Putra, KTM, CityBus, and Intrakota some time ago. No integration at all. With RapidKL taking over all these systems, and attempting to integrate them all, I would like to comment that their form of integration have not tackled the core problem. Sure, you can offer a standard ticket, Touch-N-Go, and have the same logo, but I would like to someday start my day walking to the free trolley/bus stop 1 block away which arrives at 7am, take the monorail which just arrives as I arrives at the station platform, interchange to the LRT which is waiting for me to enter across the same platform the monorail arrives, and walk to the office 2 blocks away or take a city trolley/bus to wherever I want to go. My point is, SCHEDULING! Time is money, and if the system can effectively and reliably manage the coordination of all systems, we have a world class transport system even US can envy.