[sustran] Re: Asia's 'only-poor-people-ride-transit', KL monorail & isolation

[Karl Fjellstrom]

Dear Jain,

You say that 'I could just change name of the city and "monorail" to any
other public transport mode and it would still turn out to be accurate".
Please do so. Can you back this up by providing a couple of examples of
bus-related projects (preferably in Asia) with problems of similar
magnitude?

With regard to demand, finances and construction time, all the recent Asian
BRT/busway systems (Seoul 04, Jakarta 04, Brisbane 00, Kunming 99, Beijing
06, Taipei 01) that I'm familiar with are having problems with passengers
exceeding rather than trailing projections and all are taking various
measures to expand capacity (except for Sydney's Transitway but even that is
apparently covering its operating cost). All were completed within a short
implementation time, though Brisbane took somewhat longer. So please do
provide some examples of BRT or busway projects with a similar magnitude of
problems to recent metros such as HK's West Rail (operated by your company),
Bangkok's Blue Line or Skytrain, Singapore's NEL, KL's systems, etc. 

Nothing against metros, as Asia has many successful Metro systems, but I
guess one thing is that as Allport pointed out in the World Bank UTSR back
in 2000, BRT/busway projects are an order of magnitude less risky. Even
where busways are poorly planned, as in most of the cases above and probably
most of the BRT/busway systems currently being planned in Asia, they tend
not to result in massive financial burdens for the city, construction delays
of many years, etc, and many of the problems are relatively easier and
cheaper to fix.

Karl Fjellstrom



-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+karl=dnet.net.id at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+karl=dnet.net.id at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Jain Alok
Sent: Thursday, 9 February 2006 10:30 AM
To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: Asia's 'only-poor-people-ride-transit',KL monorail &
isolation

Dear Karl,

I am not trying to come in defense of monorails but in your description
quoted below, I could just change name of the city and "monorail" to any
other public transport mode and it would still turn out to be accurate.
BRT, Metros or anything else is not immune to these problems so singling
out monorail on these grounds is unfair. These are "Management and
Planning" problems not "Mode" problems.

> As for the monorail being a fiasco, you are right this is probably a
harsh
> description and you surely know much better than me about the system.
But
> considering that:
> - it was 8 years under construction
> - a wheel fell off during a trial, striking a journalist, and
> - two years after opening they had achieved only half the projected
> passengers that they had forecast they would have 2 years earlier,
> it's at least arguable that this might qualify as a 'fiasco'. Not to
mention
> that the last monorail station stops short by 200m or so from the main
> transit terminal at KL Sentral as you mention.

Regards
Alok




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