Memo to the Federal Minister of Transport -

Memorandum to the Federal Minister of Transport -


Mass Commuter Transport Sabah. (MCTS)
by Consumers' Association of Sabah & Labuan FT. (CASH)8th August 2008
1. INTRODUCTION
Sabah with a land area of 73,711 sq km is comparable large in Malaysia as the second largest state in Malaysia. In term of quality transport by roads and other means, it is almost the worst one in the nation. The hinterland of Sabah largely agriculture, idle land and reserves has very poor and inadequate roads. Air transport within Sabah is also comparative inadequate given the costs of such form of transport.

In all the urban and suburban areas around all the major towns in Sabah, public transport has been neglected for decades. Except for a few limited unreliable services of some stage bus and some mini bus companies, mass commuter transport is non existent.

2. DEMAND & SUPPLY
The demand and supply is an important factor in the implementation of mass commuter transportation while the bus services would be retained as urban roads are fairly well connected especially in Kota Kinabalu. The network of mass commuter transportation is dependent of the available land in the urban areas for maximum benefit to link them to the suburban areas where the people reside.
2.1 DEMAND
Apart from Kota Kinabalu, there may be other towns in need of mass commuter transportation. In this memorandum, we would like to deal especially for Kota Kinabalu for its urgent needs of mass commuter transportation for people and some form of limited transportation of goods.

Kota Kinabalu city's development have extended into the suburban areas of about 20 miles radius hence more people in the city needs to commute more and to a wider area. The traffic on the roads within the city and some roads in the suburban areas are quite heavy at times especially during peak hours -three times daily in the working days.

When the city was quite congested with vehicles in the early 1990s, the Government decided to implement the flyovers in Kota Kinabalu. Due to the traffic congestion and parking problems, and the rising rents of the city premises hence costly to do business in the central business district (CBD), many suburban town centres were built in the last ten years that attracted many businesses to move out of the CBD and its immediate peripheral areas. Now we have many commercial areas situated within the radius of ten miles and many residential areas are being developed in areas around such suburban commercial districts. With a much bigger developed areas for business and residence, there is a greater need that such areas of activities are well connected by an economical and efficient network of public transport.

2.2 SUPPLY
The supply for such demand of mass commuter transportation (MCT) cannot be left to the private sector alone for various reasons. A good reliable mass commuter transportation network in Kota Kinabalu would be in need of much capital expenditure and the returns from such investment are uncertain depending on the disposable income of the working class as Sabah generally lacks a domestic economy.
So the Federal Government must provide the impetus to build a network of mass commuter transport while the proper bus services need to be expanded to cover a wider areas in Kota Kinabalu.

3. IMPLEMENTATION
This proposed project MCT would be a substantial item in the local economy but it would depend on how it is to be implemented.
3.1. Method
3.1.1 If it is a privatised project modeled on other similar projects either partly or wholly financed by the Federal Government, we do not know how it would benefit the people of Sabah with its spin off if most of the inputs would come from elsewhere. When such MCT is completed largely with outside inputs, the project would likely be managed by an outside company with high fares for the commuters when the local people may not afford to use it. We have seen enough of such scenario in Sabah when projects do not benefit the local people significantly from the start to the completion.
3.1.2 As a departure from a 'political' project under a privatised concept or build and operate the project for a long period by a company, it is recommended that Non Government Organisations be given a role to play at all levels of the project including the operation of the project on completion. This would enable the project to succeed as monopoly can work against consumers.

4. CONCLUSION
We know there is an urgent need for such a mass commuter system in Kota Kinabalu as soon as possible as the crude fuel can reach US$300 per barrel soon and when Malaysia is a net importer of fuel. By then most people would not afford personal cars and of course the other choices could be the buses be the alternate option while the bicycles and animal carts would appear on the roads. We know it is essential to have efficient public transport to boost mobility for productivity in economic maintenance for a much bigger population. If funding is a problem for this urgent implementation of this proposal of MCT, we need access to Petronas money. This MCT is the best option to soften the adverse impact of Food and Fuel Prices Upheaval rather than cash subsidies while we still the fossil oil revenue.


Prepared by Joshua Kong for CASH. 8th August 2008