Kaji dulu sebelum tambah laluan BRT, kata pakar

Selangor is considering the idea of expanding the BRT to the Sunway 5.4km route, which may include areas like Puchong, Glenmarie, and Kwasa Damansara. According to transport experts, Selangor should consider more factors before building additional BRT lanes. They say the state must assess whether there is a need for broader BRT service, whether existing public transport services are sufficient to meet demand, and whether they all integrate well.

Wan Agyl Wan Hassan, founder and co-vice chairman of MY Mobility Vision, suggested that Selangor could consider using BRT as an addition to regular bus and intercity services. However, he told FMT that the state needs to first identify the patterns of travel and shortcomings in the existing services. Last week, Selangor Investment, Trade, and Mobility Exco Ng Sze Han announced plans to expand the BRT network beyond the Sunway route of 5.4km, including areas like Puchong, Glenmarie, and Kwasa Damansara.

The state also considered learning from Jakarta's larger BRT network. The Sunway BRT, operated by Rapid KL, uses electric buses on a dedicated elevated track. Wan Agyl believes that some areas may only need better bus lanes with more frequent service, while others may require special bus lanes. He says that BRT makes sense only if there is demand.

"The objective should be to build a better public transport network. Identify where the problems in the network are and choose the appropriate solution," he said. According to him, Selangor should also consider dedicated lanes for BRT with elevated tracks only at problematic intersections or bottlenecks. Goh Bok Yen, who designs transport planning, said that the Klang Valley already has enough public transport options, but the main problem is that MRT, LRT, and bus services are not integrated well.

"We have assets. We have resources. But everything is functioning separately," he told FMT, adding that public transport should be a unified system rather than separate services. Goh said that the shuttle bus is still stuck in congestion like cars because there is not enough bus lanes and priority is not given to buses at traffic lights.

He raised questions that authorities should consider - are they willing to provide more space on roads for buses compared to private cars? "Car usage is easy and cheap, and more expressways are being built in the city," he said. However, Goh did not completely dismiss the idea, rather he saw BRT as capable of filling the gap between railway lines.

He gave an example of extending the Sunway BRT from USJ to Puchong and enabling it to connect with other LRT corridors. Academic transport scholar Ahmad Farhan Sadullah said it was too early to consider whether Puchong, Glenmarie, or Kwasa Damansara were suitable for BRT without studying the travel patterns of the general public.

He said that BRT carries fewer passengers compared to LRT or MRT, and can only complement railway lines, rather than compete with them. He said one option is for BRT to bring passengers from densely populated areas without nearby rail services to the nearest LRT or MRT stations to continue their journey. Farhan said that the cost and space available are factors to consider in deciding whether BRT should be built on the road or elevated.

He said that on the road, BRT needs its own dedicated lanes separate from ordinary traffic. "If not, there's no difference from regular bus services," he said.