KUALA LUMPUR: The Klang Valley's average daily ridership of bus and rail lines under Prasarana Malaysia Bhd is edging closer to full recovery of pre-pandemic level, with a growth of 21 per cent to 1.19 million expected this year after hitting 982,000 in 2023.
The pre-pandemic level saw average daily ridership stood at 1.24 million in 2019.
At 982,000 last year, the average daily ridership rose 44 per cent from 680,000 recorded in 2022.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the average daily ridership for Rapid Rail - which operates the MRT, LRT and Monorail in the Klang Valley - was 790,000 during pre-pandemic year but at the end of 2023, the daily ridership had hit 800,000.
Overall in 2023, the average daily ridership for Rapid Rail stood at 741,000, while the remaining 241,000 was for Rapid Bus.
The average daily ridership for Rapid Rail registered in the first half of 2023 (1H23) was 680,000 before rising to 800,000 in 2H23, said Loke at a briefing on Prasarana's rail and bus performance in 2023 and outlook for 2024 here today.
Prasarana will implement an open payment system and gradually use electric buses as part of its initiatives to boost ridership and ensure seamless travel for commuters.
The open payments will enable all commuters to travel on Prasarana's rail and bus networks with multiple payment methods, among which include debit cards, Loke said.
While the implementation will begin this year, the open payment system can be integrated fully at Prasarana's overall network only in 2025, he added.
"It will take some time to work on the internal process which includes a tender for the contractor. It is also complicated to commence immediately after implementation because we have to modify the gantry which will take up to two months for a station.
"So we will need about a year to update all the stations we operate. We have 140 stations for our rails that need to be integrated for the open payments system," Loke explained.
He said any new bus procurements will be for electric buses starting next year in an effort to enhance green mobility.
There is the last batch of 310 diesel-fuelled buses by Prasarana and they are slated to be delivered by the first quarter of 2025.
"The tender will be awarded by March this year so once that is done, it will take one year to deliver. These will be the final batch of diesel buses. After this all of that will be EV buses," added Loke.
The minister also highlighted another significant performance by Prasarana last year, in the form of reduced failures by its rail lines namely Kelana Jaya line, Ampang line and Kajang line for MRT, and the monorail line.
"A failure is recorded when there is a technical disruption that stops the train for more than five minutes, putting it behind schedule.
"In 2022, the Kelana Jaya line, which has the most number of users, had 49 failures. The most prominent issue we had in that year was when 16 stations were not able to operate for seven days," Loke said.
A total of 16 stations along the LRT Kelana Jaya line were closed from Nov 9 until Nov 15 in 2022 to facilitate repair works.
For 2023, failures at Kelana Jaya line dropped to 36 and is projected to improve further to 28 failures this year.
In total, failures in 2023 dropped to 100 from 252 in 2022. Prasarana aims to bring the figure down to only 65 failures for all four rail lines in 2024.