I stay on the mainland but that does not mean I’m insensitive to the transportation problems faced by my insular island cousins.
On the contrary, as one that grew up on the island before transplanting myself to the mainland some 28 years ago, I feel for those people who are pained by the inadequate public transport system.
People who really enjoyed the comfort of bus rides in the 1960s and 1970s now bemoan the rot that has settled in Penang.
What sort of bus services did we have in those days? Answer: a very well-regulated public bus system.
The main bus service provider was the Penang City Council, later renamed the Penang Municipal Council, but there was also the Lim Seng Seng Bus, the Hin Bus, the Penang Yellow Bus and the Sri Negara Bus. Together, we had a pretty good network of bus services that criss-crossed the island.
These buses could boast courteous drivers, friendly conductors, efficient ticket checkers (presumably to check corruption in the fare collection), comfortable seats and punctual schedules. Air-conditioning was not a problem as windows could be pushed down to let in the breeze.
But not any more. It was the deregulation of the system and the introduction of mini-bus services into the island in the late 1990s that started the transportation problems. When bus services start to compete for passengers rather than to complement, the ultimate losers (at least here in Penang) are the commuters.
The existing bus services are now the butt of jokes in this country. There were great promises when the (new) revamped bus services supposedly took effect on the island on 1 April 2006 but old habits never die. Old habits, in fact, always seem to overcome any new attempt at changing them.
That’s why I am very heartened when Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced recently that a new bus company, RapidPenang, will be plying the roads of Penang island soon.
RapidPenang is a subsidiary of RapidKL and they are supposed to have a lot of experience in running an integrated bus service in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
By August, when RapidPenang takes over, there are supposed to be 150 new buses servicing all the main and feeder routes.
Let’s see whether this comapny can do the same for Penang as RapidKL has done for KL/PJ. It will be an interesting challenge. Will RapidPenang win the war for Penangites? Or will the new drivers of RapidPenang succumb to the influence of the drivers of old? Paths do cross and you cannot prevent them from meeting one another. The government will have to recognise this potential problem and break it early.