day 1 of rapid penang on the road

yesterday was the fist day rapid penang buses hit the streets of penang… and free rides were given (up to 2nd aug.). yesterday it so happened my sister had to work late so i can’t follow her in her car back home, thus giving me a chance to take the bus home.

ok let me recount my experience on this day 1 on the spanking new rapid penang bus.

the bad: i don’t know where the bus will stop! i need to get the bus to bayan baru, which are either U301, U302, U303. i notice at komtar terminal the two lanes signboard shows only buses with the 1 and 2 series (going to tg bungah/air itam area), and no see any of the U301, U302, U303 sign. so i guess maybe the stop will be at the same place where milan bus to bayan baru stop – at prangin mall. i went there and stayed for a few minutes but no bus came. so i went to komtar, waited and was wondering if the bus will stop there since the sign did not mentioned the 3 series bus. i thought of walking over to the other side of prangin mall to look for the bus stop. just as i was going to leave komtar terminal, suddenly i saw one U303 bus came. quickly rushed for it with the large crowd.

the good: map of the bus routes are displayed prominently. pamphlets on the routes are available. the routes were published in the star paper. a very detailed booklet of all routes serviced by the buses (including fare and schedule) was available inside the bus near to the driver. many people grabbed for it. i didn’t notice it until i saw people glancing over them while seated. so when i wanted to alight from the bus, i quickly ran to the driver seat to grab one before alighting.

the bad: no proper sign showing where which bus will stop. no bus personnel at the terminal to guide people on which bus to board to which destination. there are people who can’t read, you know. beside, even those who can read, won’t know for sure if the bus will stop where they want to get down. i thought i read in the paper it stated they were going to deploy 50 or so staff personnel at the bus hubs to direct people…?

so i boarded the bus and can’t find a seat. have to stand. first stand at the first half/lower floor of the bus, where the seats are such that your back face the window, which supposedly these seats are for old people, pregnant women, handicapped… but with the crowd rushing in, who the hell care about leaving the seats vacant for such people? the 2nd half/higher floor of the bus, like what penang watch describe, has 7 steps! goodness! 1 step to one row of seats.

i had to move to stand at the 2nd half later when more people boarded the bus. then it so happened that a passenger who was seated at the last row got down, thus i took his place to sit… i didn’t realise the last seat was quite high up until i read in penangwatch that "Worse you need to be a dwarf to sit in the last row-which is 7 steps above the low floor first half of the bus." haha. so i am a dwarf! well i did announced to everyone i am a shorty, did i!! (i’m sure ong of malvu was the writer). anyway, the 2 seats opposite me, same row, me were occupied by two big burly men i see, so er… dwarf is an exaggeration.

anyway a man who was taller than me and also quite fat was sitting next to me. when he wanted to get down, i pushed my body to the side and he try to slide out but can’t! then he shooed me away to the front so that he could get out. i was wondering why didn’t he stood up to get out (squeeze past me i mean). only later i realised he can’t even stand up as the seat was so high, when one sit, one’s head nearly touch the roof.

the good: i like the ‘bucket’ seats’ each to his/her own. the hand-rails for standing passengers to hold on to are more than enough. the placement of the bells are in good position for people to reach.

the bad:  seats place on steps are no good – even for very abled person like me. people tend to be lazy to step up and people might be careless, might trip. also the 2nd half of the bus where the seats are placed on steps – seems to be ‘isolated’ from the first half where passengers first board. they board, then they tend to remain there… and even though this 2nd half got lots of empty seats, they prefer to stand there!

another bad: i notice the bell is not working! when people press, can’t hear anything. i don’t know if the rapid penang bus has a new bell system like where one press the bell, no sound heard but maybe some light or some signal flash at the driver’s, thus he knows somebody wants to alight. don’t know if that’s the case but many people went "hop! hop" (a shout that means ‘stop’) at the driver when after pressing the bell, they hear no sound. as i notice that several people did not press the bell (aiya, no sound, how to press) but stood up, went near the alighting door, then the driver realised they want to alight so did stop, when it was my turn to alight, i too got down and walk to the alighting door but it was not opened! maybe i should press the bell after all even if i hear no sound? well when i found out that it was not opened, i had to go in front to alight. luckily at that time, usually at my stop (since it is 2nd last stop), there were only less than 10 people on the bus.

i also notice that this U303 bus went to lots of small short narrow streets, and the bus being so huge and long, when i saw it turning, i shuddered. can it made the turning? so narrow, how ah? aiya, want to knock the side/the car oledi – some of my reaction.

the good (despite above): non main roads are serviced.

the bad:  found out the fare would be RM3.00  RM2.00 while the milan bus (old bus) fare is RM2.70. RM1.70. well… doesn’t really matter to me if rapid penang’s service is better than milan.

since i was lucky enough (or short enough??) to sit at the last row, i had the opportunity to take photo (being last row, nobody see me, except those sitting next to me). the photo you see was taken by me, seated at the last row. sorry because of the light on the bus, the photo doesn’t turned out good. beside, i was shooting fast (shy lah, to take photo in bus… even at last row). you see the man in the brown shoe with his leg sticking out? he was right in front of me.

ok so as you can see, so far i have more negative remarks than positive. i’m sure ong would be laughing at me now. however, i’m still an optimistic, thus looking forward to improvement and to more positive points! and you know lah… rapid penang is new… there’s bound to be complaints here and there, bound to be hiccups here and there, so let’s give them a chance before condemning them! i think the KL chief operating officer  did say that, initially there might be some ‘deficiencies and insufficiencies’ which they will overcome soon, and tell the public not to hit the panic button. true, sometimes people, just 1 day or a few days found out negative points will then totally consider rapid penang would be a disaster.

i don’t take the bus everyday since going to and fro work i get a lift in my sister’s car. then i also used my chaly (honda bike) for rides within town. only once in a week (or sometimes more) i’ll use the bus. i can be consider a bus commuter. thus i am being very optimistic that rapid penang would give a good service.