IPOH: Compelling reasons to revamp city's public transport system - NST

By : VICTOR CHEW, Ipoh

MANY letters and reports have appeared in the newspapers about the problems of public transport in Ipoh city but very little has been done to solve them.
And nothing came out of a seminar in Ipoh last year on the same subject because of the ongoing political crisis in the state. How long must we wait for a comprehensive public transport system to serve Ipoh for the next 10 to 20 years?

Many people, including city officials, think that Ipoh is a small place and that its public transport needs are not urgent. They are wrong. Traffic congestion is becoming worse with schools being the major cause of traffic jams. This problem surfaced in the early 1960s; many mayors tried to solve it but were met with opposition from school bodies when they suggested that schools be relocated from the city centre to the outskirts.

Why not keep the schools where they are but force parents to find alternative ways to sent their children to school? If they want the top schools like the Convent, St Michael's Institution, Anderson, ACS, Ave Maria and Perak Girls School to be in the city proper, then they have to pay an alternative cost, that of sending their children by schoolbuses.

Their cars, the main cause of traffic congestion, must not be allowed in. They should be made to pay a toll for doing so during school peak hours. During these hours, a toll should be collected from parents who send and fetch their children.
However, in the long run, looking at the way Ipoh is being developed with radical expansion of housing estates all around, its central business district (CBD) will become very congested.

The streets within the CBD will not be able to cope. There will be perpetual traffic jams and lack of parking spaces and these problems will get worse when cars are double-parked. It is already happening outside banks and offices.

The solution is to coordinate the current bus services under a planning commission set up either by the city council or the Perak government. This commission will re-plan the routes to be serviced by existing companies and give them priority to increase services and routes if they want to. If they are unable to fulfil all the planned services, new companies should be allowed to run such services.

This commission will also be responsible for the issue of new licences for public transport and taxis for Ipoh City. In addition, this commission should be given the sole responsibility to take action against defaulting service providers. In this way, we have a central body within the city to control public transport operators, unlike now where everyone seems to have a say and no one wants to say anything.

Furthermore, it is time to start planning a light railway transport system. With the existing electrified dual carriage railway tracks of Keretaapi Tanah Melayu, a central link from Ipoh North to Ipoh South will become possible. Commuter services can run from as far north as Sungai Siput to as far south as Kampar. We also need a few east-west branch lines to complete the system.

A detailed map was produced by two of the speakers in the Ipoh City Watch Seminar on Public Transport; the authorities could use them as a guide.

I hope transport officials will consider the above ideas when planning Ipoh's public transport system. A good public transport system rejuvenates a city but a city with a messy public transport system is bound to be in a state of decay.