The history of the Light Rail Train (LRT) in Malaysia started vastly during 1998, in conjunction with the

Commonwealth Sports in Kuala Lumpur. The Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan, (STAR) Construction Project was accelerated to occupy one of the facilities during those days which was the transportation system to the Stadium Bukit Jalil, Shah Alam. Now, the LRT system became apart of the Integrated Transportation Network in Malaysia especially in the most car-dependant city that is Kuala Lumpur. Since the Government's policy which emphasises on promoting Proton, our local car had contributed to an increasing road users, which then resorts to severe road congestion and street -level pollution. Thus, the LRT fulfils the needs of numerous users who favour the LRT rather than the other public transportation such as taxies and busses for an effective public transportations. Even though the public transport dependant has increases up to 20% with the promotion on LRT system, it is still far behind Hong Kong which recorded public transport dependant of almost 80% and Manila of about 63%. In Malaysia, the LRT system is operated by two different companies, STAR Sdn. Bhd. and Projek Usahasama Transit Ringan Automatik, PUTRA Sdn, Bhd. The STAR Sdn. Bhd. manages a 27km track which consists of north-south line and another going eastward. While the PUTRA Sdn. Bhd. manages a 29km track that connects the city s north-eastern section to west, the world s second longest fully-automated driverless metro system and the longest self-powered metro in Asia. Through the government s strategic transportation plan, an effective network was established as the two lines intersect in Masjid Jamek, a central financial district. The Kelana-Jaya line, formerly known as the PUTRA LRT has 24 stations along its 29km length, and was built in two sections that are Lembah Subang to Pasar Seni, and Pasar Seni to Ampang Park and Gombak. The average train speed is 40km per hour with ultimate capacity of 30,000 passengers in each direction. The system operates for 18 hours per day. Despite the fact that the LRT system eases the transport burden of its users, complaints are still being received especially during the peak hours which is in working days from 7.00am to 9.00am. Those were the times when LRT services were poorly recognized by its users. With people coming in and out continuously during the peak hours, most ticket vending machines, also known as ticket booths were said to have bad performance. Some booths rejected the user s money or sometimes the money were retrieved with tickets not being given to the users. Such problems indicated the poor services of the current LRT system. Thus, it brought such nuisance because the KL LRT is a closed system which requires the tickets purchased to gain access to the platform and also to leave the station. Once the tickets in pos ession, users will have to wait for their LRT in the platform.

Furthermore, safety measures are being taken into huge consideration to ensure the absence of accidents in the platform during operating hours. Such steps as if ensuring its staff to control the movements of people coming in and out of the coaches. They ought to keep the users in a safe distance from the moving LRT that is beyond the yellow-coloured line, especially during peak hours. This is because most users tend to rush into the coaches and thus, accidents are most likely to occur. Unfortunately, passengers might have their heads knocked off or skidded into the railways. These is a threatening situation, and had caused great concern especially in the senior citizens which have low coordination of response, low sense of hearing and weak sight or in simpler terms peopl e who are handicaps. This type of concerned happened because that most facilities do not meet the needs of the handicaps, they have such problems of the difficulty in getting into the coaches safely and comfortably. More sadly is that, most users do not pay much attention to the handicaps as they themselves, are in a hurry on their own businesses of the day. This lack of civic mindedness have splattered mud on the Malaysian society as a whole. Where we Malaysian's are such a well mannered people and rich in diversity and mannerism.

Besides that, the increasing number of users of the LRT have become an increasing problem towards the quality of the service. As we all know, the quality of the service does not seem to work out very well, as comfort of using it has always been an issue. The coaches are packed like sardines during peak hours, the users ended up feeling humid and sweaty, it is as if the air-conditioning does not work. Plus, anything could happen within the hours before each and every one of the users arrive to their destination such as sexual harassment and pick pocketing. Such cases had been widely popular, and most of the incidents happen to female students and workers. Harassment occurs easily during peak hours as most users had to stand in close proximity with the other user, thus perverts can easily harass their victims. An article by Vivienne Pal from The Star, stated that perverts have been spotted to prey on timid-looking women on the LRT train since 2008. She also managed to interview one the victims who preferred to remain anonymous. She was harassed when she was on her way to work on the Terminal Putra-Kelana Jaya line during one rush hour morning. She noticed that the person behind her was quite annoying but she only discovered abou t the pervert when suddenly she felt something pressing hard on her back. Afterwards, she felt a sudden wetness on her back and part of her dress. It is not a surprising thing if the next cases involving molestation occur more frequently as little precautions on the safety of female passengers are being taken. Shawn also explained that the trauma of being har assed is very deep and unfortunately it lingers in the victims mind for a long period of ti me as the victim was psychologically wounded.

Proposals and ideas have been suggested to overcome the problems on peak hours. Firstly, continuous maintenance from the LRT companies should be conducted to ensure a smooth and reliable fare collection system. Instant action should be taken once a problem is detected. Secondly, as the number of passengers escalated the number of coaches should be increased to overcome the traffic in LRT trains. Luckily, this problem is about to end as the Government have taken proactive steps. From My Sinchew.com, transport Minister, Dato Ong Tee Keat said that his ministry plan to expand the LRT service from Ampang soon. This is due to the feedback received from the public requesting to include and improve Ampang line in the expansion plan. Previous process in Kelana Jaya will be repeated in Ampang as an overwhelming support was received in Kelana Jaya-Subang rail last year. He also mentioned that the public wants the waiting time to shorten. Thus, the ministry plans to shortened it from 2.8 minutes to two minutes. As imp roving public transportation is one of the priorities in the National Key Result Area (NKRA), it is the responsibilities of the Ministry to improve the LRT system , he added. This is also parallel to the doctrine of a responsible government, the government must act adequately towards the problems of the public. On to the next problem, which is the most problematic , cases of perverts doing molestation and sexual harassment. However, the LRT company, might as well put up posters and adverts along the station to keep an eye on pick pockets and also perverts. This is not up only to the LRT admin, it also concerns the passengers itself. This because by the cooperation of both, this problem can be thwarte d. Organisation such as Rakan Cop should be more vigilant in these areas, the more cooperation of these parties, the more the passengers can be rest at ease.

Being one of the richest countries in the world , Switzerland , with Zurich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as second and third highest quality of life in the world. This country has been upgrading progressively its four-line light rail train, LRT in some suburbs during the past 30 years. the flexibility and high -quality services have drawn most of its inhabitants to depends on its public transportation especially the LRT. Plus, the safety of its LRT s users is secured this is proven with the statistics saying that Switzerland is one of the most safe country, with very few cases involving sexual harassments, thief pocketing and molestation on LRT being reported each year. The Government may as well learn about their transportation plans and perhaps create a joint venture to improve our LRT service in Malaysia.

As a conclusion, the LRT service in Malaysia especially during peak hours will eventually gets better along with the government s vision of making the public transportation in Malaysia reliable and in optimum condition. This will make the people of Kuala Lumpur much happier in the sense of getting to work, and indirectly people will rely on mass transportation rather than personal ones. The LRT service need also to ensure the comfortability of the users at all times, either during non-peak hours or peak hours. W hilst, the government needs to fulfills the public's wants, the government will also secure the support needed from the citizen of Malaysia to maintain a stable country and focuses more on the other infrastructures and industries. As the LRT services improve, indirectly the public opinion on public transportation will increase and definitely convince the users to rely on the LRT, busses or taxies. The public will only be convinced when there is results as results shows much more importance than petty words. Thus, previous problems such as traffic congestion or street level pollution will only be a thing of the past, and improves the air condition significantly in the most car-dependant city in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

REFERENCES: 1. http://kiat.net/malaysia/KL/transit.html 2. http://www.mot.gov.my/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=150 3. http://www.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8556 &Itemid=82 4. http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/1/16/central/19999361&sec=ce ntral 5. http://www.mysinchew.com/node/34721 6. http://pubsindex.trb.org/view.aspx?id=457821 7. http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/kuala_lumpur/