There are certain things in life such as taxes and death but definitely not the arrival time of the KTM trains. I'm typing this entry from the comfort of my home because this morning's train service had a major disruption that caused only one single train from Sentul to Port Klang and one from Port Klang to Sentul, meaning that there only be one to each destination for the next one hour or so from end to end.
This is not the first time. In fact the disruptions before were much less severe this. Earlier last month there was a disruption to the power line at Pantai Dalam causing the track towards Port Klang to be unusable but the response was quick enough by diverting them to the next track with all trains going in one direction. As most people are actually going towards KL to work rather than the opposite, I suppose 3/4 of the passengers managed to arrive just slightly before 9. I feel sorry for those going to Port Klang though - they were definitely late to work that morning.
At the end I decided to go to *TPM by myself to help my colleague out with his presentation today because the scheduled time was at 10.00 am and it will be quite impossible to arrive at office by 9.30 am, the latest when we have to leave.
*Had a call from him been told that the meeting place had been moved to God knows where.
As I walked away to my car shaking my head, the number of people waiting increased three-folds, so you can imagine how these people would try to get in to the already jammed packed train from the previous stations. I decided it was not worth the wait even when it was supposed to arrive in 5 minutes by the time I reach the turnstiles, as the next one would be there in probably an hour should I miss it.
These are such things that make people vote for the opposition regardless of who they are as the discontent with the present government gets magnified by daily essentials getting disrupted. I said it many times to my friends and colleagues that I don't really care who the Prime Minister is as long as the KTM arrives and departs on time as I partially depend on it to get to work. The hike in fuel prices is already bad enough as it is and here we have the the public transport working in sketchy condition.
In short the KTM deserved all the bad reputation it is having.
Just a couple of weeks ago I had a colleague from Singapore who took the train with me from Subang to KL Sentral, taking the 1:36 pm train. I told him that ever since the price hike the trains had 'miraculously' arrived on time (subjectively 'on time' meant no more than 5 - 30 minutes that is previously was notorious for). Well what do you know, it came almost 9 minutes later. I told him that such things are still expected as the consortium is currently having its train sets upgraded.
To be honest with all of you, I am not sure if I actually believe that anymore.
Old facilities and equipment? That is no excuse as the KTM Berhad is under the jurisdiction of Prasarana Nasional which is in control of the Ministry of Finance. Let me repeat that slowly: Ministry-of-Finance.
Surely they don't transport Bank Negara notes on KTM?
The Prime Minister himself just took a ride and saw for himself how 'amazing' the whole experience of the train ride to work the morning was and I could only wonder if the service would improve if more big wigs are forced to take it work daily. The scenario is endless. The only reason why things remain as it is because the consortium had no reason to since people depend on it and there are no competitors - "What will you do if you don't take the KTM eh? Drive or take the bus then". If another private train system were plying the same route you'd imagine KTM Bhd bosses sweating to see people no longer lining up to wait for their trains and having the ministers breathing down their necks to explain the red figures in the accounting books.
I don't blame the Prime Minister, his Deputy or the Minister of Finance or Minister of Transport. The daily operations of the KTM train service has been delegated as per required to the people who actually run the service. The ministers have no time to go down and ask if the coupling at Stesen Serdang is working or if the toilets are in good condition at KL Sentral or to check if train arrived on time this morning at Rawang.
BN kah, PR kah, Anwar ka, Badawi ka - who the hell cares - where is the damned train?
Blame the people who run the operations.
Why are there technical problems?
Where are the backups?
What will KTM do to ensure this doesn't happen in the future?
Yeah yeah, Murphy's Law and all that, even Singapore's famed MRT services experience disruptions once in a while (yes, my Singaporean friend told me - I didn't make that up) but the difference in terms of the punctuality and the amount of disruptions is incomparable.
I'd be embarrassed if I were the person in charge.
The first heads to roll should be those who manage the operations as stated above.
Even the public announcement this morning had problems (not grammatical as mine isn't perfect either):
"Due to technical difficulties at Sentul Station, the train service to all destinations had experienced delays. KTM Berhad would like to apologise for any inconvenience cause".
It should have been:
"Due to technical difficulties at Sentul Station, the train service to all destinations had experienced delays. KTM Berhad would like to apologise for all inconveniences cause".
Don't spam me with the rakyat this rakyat that malarkey as the MPs and ADUN from both sides don't take the public transport themselves to the assemblies or Parliament.
