It is another shocking news to train commuters that all southbound intercity trains will only stop at JB Sentral, hence commuters will need to take the shuttle train to Singapore from there. KTM owes the public, especially its passengers, a thorough explanation about plans to improve its service.

China Press revealed this latest change on June 9 and many passengers were left disappointed. According to KTM, the change will take effect from July 2015 onwards and it is part of its rescheduling plan. The company claimed that very few passengers would be affected since currently there are only a few southbound intercity train services going into Singapore daily.

However, the frequent changing of plans on the pretext of improving its services has caused dissatisfaction among KTM passengers who found themselves having to change their commuting schedule and pattern every now and then.

To assure its passengers that services will not be interrupted by the latest changes, I propose that KTM roll out three shuttles per hour during the morning and evening peak hours. More importantly, the price of the shuttle journey must be reasonable and affordable. The earlier proposal of RM5 or S$5 for a single trip is way too high.

There are more than 200,000 Malaysian citizens commuting daily between Johor Baru and Singapore. Hence, a JB-Singapore shuttle service will definitely be a profitable venture if managed well. If KTM can cater for 900 to 1,000 passengers in an hour with three shuttles, the train company will be looking at about 4,000 passengers just during the peak hours, merely 2 percent of the daily commuters.

In turn, the provision of such public transport service will improve the well-being of residents of Johor, by providing convenience and lowering the cost of commuting whether for work or recreation.

The fact is that train service in Johor has been under-utilised and the potential of railway is not optimised. I urge Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai and Land Transport Commission (Spad) chairperson Syed Hamid Albar to ‘turun padang’ and do a field visit to understand the situation better and to ensure our public transport is fully integrated.

Since last December, there have been several announcements about the hourly shuttle train between JB Sentral and Singapore Woodlands. Yet, the hourly shuttle train is still not operating due to insufficient coaches and track.

I fully understand the limitations of KTM in improving the service between JB and Singapore before the double-track rail is completed. Nevertheless, I hope that the potential of railway can be maximised and fully utilised to serve the people at its best even before the planned hardware upgrade is completed.  

WONG SHU QI is Johor DAP policy director and Senai assemblyperson.