KUALA LUMPUR: Customers are urging Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) to look into issues regarding ticket sales, including bulk purchases at counters and the slow-loading MobTicket mobile application.
A traveller, Farith Ritzwan Fauzi, 29, said he had to wait for almost two hours to buy a ticket to Padang Besar next week.
“I saw people taking a long time to buy tickets in bulk. This is not fair for customers,” he said.
Nasya Zulkifli, 27, said there was a need to open a counter for people who wanted to buy many tickets.
“I have waited since morning and this is the third day that I have come here to buy tickets,” she said, adding that she did not mean to make people wait.
“When we buy in bulk, we need to key in the identification details of the senior citizens,” she said.
Checks by the New Straits Times showed that the KTMB website allowed a maximum of six tickets per transaction, and the application allowed for two tickets per transaction.
Wong Seefei, 40, said the MobTicket application was slow yesterday and she could not make any purchases even after several attempts.
“I have selected the travelling date and time, but I could not proceed with payment,” she said.
Another traveller, Edward Watson, 41, said it would be good to have a kiosk like those available to buy Light Rail Transit and the Mass Rapid Transit tickets.
“It can shorten the queue and save time,” he said.
On Tuesday, KTMB chief executive officer Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal apologised for technical issues in its online ticketing system on the first day of its advance ticket sale period on Monday.
KTMB corporate communications head Ahmad Asri Khalbi said yesterday there were eight counters opened at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral station.
“Six are for advance bookings, one for current travel and another for refunds. We do not plan to have a dedicated lane for bulk purchase.”
Asri said although the MobTicket application was intermittent, it was better than the first and second day of KTMB’s advance ticket sale.
“We admit that it lags at times,” he said.
KTMB said it was planning to do away with the limit imposed on ticket purchases on its website.
It also wanted to review the limit set for purchases on its Mobticket application.
By September, consumers can to buy up to nine tickets per transaction on the mobile application, instead of two.
Asri said up to 3pm yesterday, KTMB sold 126,962 tickets, of which 60,080 were sold online and 66,882 over the counters.