KUALA LUMPUR: Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook expressed his dissatisfaction that three out of four commuter train service ticket machines at the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) station in Kuala Lumpur were not functioning.
The discovery was made this morning when the minister paid a surprise visit to the station after inspecting the Central Market Pedestrian Bridge.
He remarked that the malfunctioning machines were extremely shameful and reflected a bad image of public transportation in the country.
"Especially in this new year, whereby we are welcoming foreign tourists to the country with the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign, this situation is extremely unacceptable," he said.
Loke called on the top leaders of the public transport service providers in the country including Prasarana, MRT Corp and KTMB to be more pro-active and go down to the ground to address service issues that are often the complaints of customers.
"I know a lot of issues, especially on ticketing, KTM (had) a lot of complaints on ticketing, on services and all that from time to time, we have to upgrade.
"No point for us to have big projects, spend billions of ringgit to upgrade the tracks, upgrade the station, but in term of the services to public we are far behind," he said.
In the meantime, commenting on the resumption of operation of the Rayani Air carrier this year, he said there has been no request from the company to resume service.
Any airline seeking to become operational will need the approval of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) and the Malaysian Civil Aviation Authority (CAAM). -- BERNAMA