The new rail transit...

The RM4 to 5 billion rail transit line spanning from Kota Damansara to Cheras project certainly raised many eyebrows including mine. I'll be expecting some ramblings coming from our former prime minister anytime soon, tho i can only tell that the only thing he might complain about is why the heck is that rail not being built at somewhere else as we already have 3,4 or 5 transits serving KL folks alone. Why KL? Are the population in Penang not denser than that of Kota Damansara? Would those averagely more well-off folks in Damansara opt for transit and leave their BMW 5series to rot? I don't know and am certainly not of the slightest degree be bothered, as long as it served my interest for i'm a KL-ian. What i'm concern is the quality of its implementation. While we've always known that our government is so 'sensitive' to our needs and strives to feed us with projects after projects, they are mostly handed down to blood-sucking contractors. All they ever think of is how to maximize income and minimize expenditure. But many times because of their cost-cutting practices, we end users suffer a whole lot more, not to mention extra costs incur for extra maintenance cost for those shitty workmanship they've provided.

If you happen to be one of the country's million+ commuter, you'd have found out that outlook can be deceiving. While RapidKL has been doing well thus far, giving people the impression of "Wa, new bus wor, flat-rate ticket summore, what a wonderful country am i living in", much of these would fade off the moment you sit on the bench(of the bus). Here's what it's all about; most of the fleets install all-plastic seats, which means all good-looking but not comfy. They're hard to your bottom and the inadequate height, lol, if you're one of those big-headed guy i feel sorry for you, you won't get to rest your neck for the rest of your journey! You also tend to slide as you sit as there's minimum friction between you bottom and the surface. Oh, and not forgetting to mention that the seats will mould you into The Hunchback of Notre Dame should you stay in the bus long enough. A total ignorance to human body shape(i'm speechless if the seats are meant for Humpty Dumpty)

Also, if you've tried the lrts here, you'd agree with me that the former StarLRT trains fared better in terms of capacity and comfortability. Yes, the metal based seats do give away when the train moves, rendering you of sliding away from your seat, but heck, you get to play with it (provided there's no one sitting next to you). But if you consider carefully, you'll see that the metal seats can accommodate more commuters(average 6 to 7 peps per row) during peak hours and provide comfort to over-sized people. (If you don't already know this fact, Malaysians are among the fattest citizen in this region, thanks to the love for food and the all-year-round multiracial festivals). Whereas for former Putra-LRT trains, their plastic seats are space-limited, and their seats are fixed(maximum 6 per row, mostly 4 per row). Moreover, the partitions in the train amplify traveling noises that even a blasting mp3 player wouldn't spare your ears.

My only hope is that our 'ever-sensitive' government would not overlook this matter as it only requires a drop of ink to spoil a whole barrel of milk. Let not the people in cheras and kota damansara suffer. But i'm not all too hopeful as i reckon RapidKL is a pet company to our current government, and knowing their game, they'd mostly provide us with PutraLRT-like seats. Let's pray and hope not.