COMPLAINT HANDLING.

Customer have the right to complaint of services they were received. KTMB
should encourage the customer feedback in order to achieve the customer satisfaction and
customer retention. With the complaints they get, it is an opportunity for them to get into
the hearts and minds of the customer. Complaining customers are pointing to continue
their relationships with the firms and they are expecting the firm to make things right.
KTMB should develop effective strategies to recover their service failures so they can
maintain customer concern.

There are lots of complaints about KTMB services from their customers. KTMB
has problem with delay train schedule. Some of the customers are complaining that the
train will postpone from 8.03am - 8.23am. So obviously the 8.23am train will be delayed
for another 20 minutes and so on. They have to wait for 40 minutes just waiting for the
train and this is not guarantee that they can go into the train when it reach the station. The
passengers refuse to wait for the next train because they afraid they will not get any train
after. KTMB also has unavailability of trains at peak hours because of their shortage of
rolling stocks and small numbers of trains. Besides that, they also complaining that they
are not comfortable when there are lot of passengers inside the train because the train
does not have good air-conditioning systems. When the train breakdowns, the operation
management will take a long time to fix it and that cause all passengers stuck in the train
with feel of anger and uncomfortable because there is no have air-supply.

Furthermore, they also are complaining that the KTMB has terrible workers at
most part. Most of them are not treating the customer in a nice way. They simply talk
rude to their customers. Besides that, there are some customers complaining that they
have been facing problem which when they missing one station or bought a wrong ticket
they were got fine RM10. The staff forced them to pay the fine instead of tolerate with
the customers. Besides that, they also had received complaints of rowdy male passengers,
pickpockets and foreigners taking advantage of female passengers
.
SERVICE RECOVERY AND IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY AND
PRODUCTIVITY.

KTMB should enhance their service quality and improve their service
productivity in order to give value to both customers and their firms. However, this firm
has made their service recovery and improves the quality.

`They are facing with the shortage of rolling stock for their commuter service so
in order to help rectify this issue, they have looked at the schedule to see if they can focus
more on the busiest areas during the peak periods. They have managed to improve their
frequency from every twenty minutes to every fifteen minutes. However, they feel that it
is still not enough so they are looking towards getting it down to every ten minutes in the
future.

Recently, the government has decided to embark on the national key performance
indicators (KPI) for the ministers and improving public transportation is one of them.
Under the RMK8 plan, the Government of Malaysia have approved funding of RM
636.73 million for the purchase of rolling stock comprising of new high powered diesel
locomotives, wagons and coaches. Fourty (40) new high-powered 3200 h.p. locomotives
have been procured and have arrived in stages with the first batch of 5 locomotives
received on 1st October 2003 and second batch of 7 locomotives received on 5th
December 2003. The supply for 10 Air-conditioned Buffet Coaches (ABC) and
procurements of 195 Bogie Container Flat (BCF), 55 Bogie Refrigerated Flat (BRF) and
2 Power-Generating Cars have been completed. Other procurement includes 10 Air-
conditioned Economy Class (AEC) coaches which are expected to be awarded in 2004
and 6 units of 6-car sets Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) for which tender will be called by
the Government.
 As part of KTM Berhad's rolling stock upgrading works to replace its ageing
rolling stock, forty (40) new high-powered 3200 h.p locomotives will be procured in
stages and the first batch of General Electric (GE) locomotives is expected to arrive in
September 2003. At present, KTM Berhad has received 195 Bogie Container Flat (BCF)
wagons, 55 Bogie Refrigerated Flat (BRF) wagons and two Power-Generating Cars
(PGC). The refurbishment of 10 Air-Conditioned Buffet Coaches (ABC) has also been
completed. Other procurement includes 10 Air-Conditioned Economy Class (AEC)
coaches and two units of 110 tonne cranes.

Through their discussion of the issues that were brought up by the committees for
the public transportation system, they have decided to improve on the rolling stock they
build per year in order to provide decent service to passengers and commuters. They are
looking at procuring more than thirty, six-car trains and refurbishing about fifteen of the
existing ones so that they can meet the numbers in the long term, as well as the short
term. The refurbishment of the fifteen could be finished in a year or two. They will use
those to start encouraging the public to use the commuter service. Once they get their
new set of rolling stock and they can improve their frequency, they are really sure and
target that people will return to use the commuter trains. Their numbers once reached
105,000 passengers per day. Now, they have dropped by about 20 per cent to nearly
80,000 because they do not have the rolling stock. They want to attract the previous
commuters and increase the numbers by another 50 to 100 per cent.

In addition, they have doubled the track extension from Ipoh in the north near the
Thai border, which should be completed by 2013. In the south, they have further work
underway that should be ready by 2012. And, they will extend additional routes by 2015.

Currently, the government is funding all of the new double track electrified lines
and commuter trains. At the same time, they are looking at the corporate restructuring of
KTMB. Once they have sorted out their current borrowings and they are in a position to
raise funds in areas where locomotives and coaches are needed, they will be looking into
raising their own funds from the market.
 Moreover, they are looking at trying to meet their current capacity from their
existing customer and passenger base; but, in the future they will be looking at expanding
their routes to the east. They do not have a straight route from Kuala Lumpur to Kelantan.
Currently, their passengers have to travel down to the south and then back up again to the
north. There is a study being done to look at adding a potential line from Kuala Lumpur
to Kelantan and then linking Kelantan to the north and south. With the commission of
this double track, they hope to introduce commuter service to some of the major cities
like Penang and Ipoh. Those are some of the future plans in terms of the rail network
itself.

Besides that, there is a growing demand for foreign tourists taking their trains,
especially once the Ministry of Tourism has developed some new packages such as home
stays and other new tourist attractions. In fact, now it ranges from 10 to 20 per cent
depending on which part of the region is being referenced. They hope to build on this
because of the increasing demand in tourism. They are also looking at ecotourism and
health tourism. There is potential for big developments in these areas in the future. They
have decided that after making commuter service their number one priority, they will
make tourism their number two priority in the city because of the great demand. They
hope to develop some packages that will provide door-to-door service for tourists to be
comfortable and feel that it is worth coming to Malaysia, especially with their favorable
exchange rate. The customers really get value for their money.

Furthermore they hope they can expand to other regions of the country, provide
commuter service in new growing cities like Penang and Ipoh, and also provide freight
services at a much faster pace in the future. With the electrified double track, they hope
that they can procure more electric locomotives to provide a faster service. At the same
time, this will be an environmentally friendly system that will cut down on CO2
emissions. They hope the government should give then some priority since they are also
working towards minimizing global warming and climate change. Apart from this, they
are looking to upgrade their line from a middle gauge to a standard gauge, as is used in
Europe and Japan, so that they can run a faster train at 200 km/hour. With a 200 km/hour
train, they will be able to reach Singapore in 90 minutes. That is similar to what is in
place in Europe between London and Paris on the Eurostar. Of course, it takes two and a
half hours but the distance is longer. Currently, it takes six and a half hours to travel from
Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The highspeed train could do it in one and a half hours and
replace the airline route. In relation to the rest of the country, they will be able to reach
cities in west Malaysia each within an hour for example Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh or Ipoh to
Penang.

Other than that, they are concerned with the matters of rowdy male passengers,
pickpockets and foreigners taking advantage of female passengers. They want their
passengers to feel safe and privileged while using their service. A few people have raised
concerns on whether this move is to separate the sexes, but they have the normal coaches
to serve both sexes. They pointed out that the practice of having coaches specifically for
ladies was implemented in developed countries like Japan years ago and it took some
time for the people to fully understand the reason for having such coaches. And now
KTMB has practicing female passengers use the ladies-only coach

Moreover, in the face of the Influenza A (H1N1) threat, KTM Bhd is taking a
series of preventive measures on its intercity and commuter trains. They will spray
disinfectant in every coach every night. They always advise the passengers to wear
masks. In fact, during the first week of Ramadan, KTM issued a few thousand masks to
commuter passengers. Notices reminding passengers to use masks and posters instructing
how to prevent the spread of the virus were also available at stations and in the coaches.