Free Bus Service

I attended a briefing delivered by the State Government of Penang yesterday. One of the interesting innovation they have carried out is the providing of FREE bus service in the CBD of Georgetown. The bus service is provided by Rapid Penang and fully pay by the Municipal Council of Penang. I was told that the Council is paying RM50,000 per month to get the service done. After listening to the briefing, I cannot resist on trying out myself the service provided. It is pretty good covering the major destinations in CBD area, namely the KOMTAR, Padang Kota, Jetty and others.


To say the least, I am impressed with the political will and management commitment of the Council to provide public transportation service. While many have argued that public transportation is under the juridic ion of Federal Government and the local authority can only have minor responsibility, I disagree with the argument. The example of Penang Municipal Council proved that local authorities can have a big role to play in providing public transportation service and not to confine to providing bus stop, bus lane and sign board only, after all everyone is kept talking about having an efficient public transportation service for overcoming the traffic congestion and other road-based traffic problem.


If the local authorities do not take pro-active action in solving the transportation problems, or the least is to complimenting efforts of others to reduce the traffic problems, then it is a problem that forever cannot keep up with the pace of development, i personally think.