MRT feeder bus a hit with people from rural areas

PETALING JAYA: Feeder bus services provided by Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) have become a boon for people in rural areas to go about on their daily tasks.
Head of MRT Feeder Bus Zainurul Hakim Mohd told theSun that despite the rail and feeder bus services having just commenced operations a month ago, the response from the public towards both the services is relatively good.
"On average, the feeder buses have an average daily ridership of some 15,000 for the MRT feeder bus service, which it is something unexpected. Most of the ridership is coming from the rural folk," Zainurul said.
He pointed out that most of the folks are using the service not only to get to the MRT stations but to get to their preferred destination like going to the market or universities.
He explained that unlike stage buses whose coverage areas are main roads, the coverage for the fleet of 112 feeder buses covers some 26 routes that include both the main road as well as rural road.
"We will try to make sure the buses cover most of the residential routes in the rural areas to ensure these folks, especially senior citizens, do not need to rely so much on their children when it comes to doing their chores," he said.
Zainurul revealed that the top three stations with the highest ridership are Sungai Buloh, Kwasa Sentral and Pusat Bandar Damansara with the highest ridership coming from the Sungai Buloh station which recorded a ridership of 104,213 over the past one month.
Pusat Bandar Damansara recorded a 77,526 ridership while Kwasa Sentral recorded 40,921 since the feeder bus services commenced a month ago.
Asked on the bus driver recruitment process, Zainurul said that all applicants undergo a stringent selection procedure before they will be hired as bus driver.
"During recruitment, we will conduct background checks with the relevant authorities or agencies to ensure the potential driver has a clean driving record.
"At the same time, we will also check the applicant's background with other bus operators or association to find out about the applicant's driving record," he added.