Rapid KL has added a new bus route that is aimed towards Members of Parliament as well as the staff of the august house. The service provides rides free of charge but it is quite limited in regards to the people that are eligible to use it, though it’s understandable given that it is only a temporary route.
Bus T851 travels between KL Sentral, Taman Botani Perdana, and Parliament, with Taman Botani’s parking lot used to offer a park and ride experience. It runs on weekdays from 7AM to 8PM with a frequency of 30 minutes during peak hours and and every hour during non-peak hours.
While the bus provides connectivity to Taman Botani, the parliament bus is unfortunately only available for MPs, staff of Parliament, and civilians who have official business during the sittings, including officials and members of the media. According to Minister of Transport Anthony Loke, the bus will stop at the building’s security post for workers to collect their passes, bypassing the queue for visitors.
The route has a limited run of between 20 February until 6 April, ending a week after the first parliamentary session for the year is scheduled to end. Loke stated that it costs RM800 per day to charter a shuttle bus and that the Ministry of Transport has chartered two buses daily for route T851.
The Parliament bus uses two smaller buses that are more efficient as they can take up to 30 passengers through small residential areas while longer regular buses would find it difficult to manoeuvre the roads in the compound, Loke explained. Interestingly, he mentioned that with this new service, he hopes that it will encourage Rapid KL to utilise more minibuses.
He said that deploying minibuses would help with first and last-mile issues experienced by those who commute using public transport. Adding to that, the transport minister will soon be making announcements regarding proposals by e-hailing firms to solve first and last-mile connectivity issues.
Earlier this month, Loke said that his ministry was looking into a pilot ride-sharing project where taxis and e-hailing apps offer trips with lower fares to train stations. Separately, the Selangor state government is also developing an e-hailing app of some sorts to provide last-mile connectivity.
(Sources: Bernama, Malay Mail)
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