Emulate Taiwan’s rail success

There is much for us to learn from real experts and real examples from Taiwan cities to improve our local public transport infrastructure.

LETTERS: ABOUT 43 per cent of Taipei’s residents use public transport. Malaysians can learn a lot from Taiwan if we want to achieve 40 per cent public transport usage by 2030. All the more so for Penang which is currently implementing the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

Last week, I checked out Taiwan’s various public transport systems such as inter-city buses, inter-state high-speed rail, Kaohsiung’s trams, Taichung’s bus network and Taipei’s metro.

INTER-CITY, INTER-STATE
NETWORK

Travellers who land at Taipei airport can get around Taiwan’s northern region easily. There is a bus terminal linked to the airport with bus companies providing connecting services from the airport directly to other cities and states.

I took a two-hour bus ride from Taipei airport to Taichung, located in the middle of Taiwan. I also took the high-speed rail from Kaohsiung in the south to Taipei in the north. The inter-city and inter-state public transport infrastructure was excellent.

The upcoming light rail transit (LRT) in Penang will serve the high-demand route from the airport to George Town, enhanced by feeder bus services to other parts of the state.

Inter-city transport services should be provided at the airport, where travellers who fly in can take buses to Taiping, Sungai Petani, Gurun and other towns in Perak and Kedah.

URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Kaohsiung’s tram system blends well into the port city which houses the famous Pier 2 art district. The tram’s low-passenger capacity and slow speed allow for plenty of sightseeing.

Taichung’s and Taipei’s public buses have exclusive lanes to maximise their speed on congested roads. Bus stations are located in the middle of the road to minimise traffic interruption.

Nonetheless, both the on-ground tram and bus have weaknesses and limitations when serving high-demand routes.

Their weakness is the high risk of collision with pedestrians, vehicles and other road users.

In 2018, Taipei saw 466 bus accidents (a 27 per cent increase from 2017) with various causes such as failure to note people or vehicles in front of the bus, driving negligently, violation of turning, violation of traffic light signal and not yielding to pedestrians.

The limitations of on-ground trams and buses is their inefficiency as they need to stop at junctions and pedestrian crossings, delaying commuting time.

Elevated or underground rail systems, such as LRT and metro, have a much lesser risk of collision.

Since they do not share road space with other users, these systems are more efficient compared with on-ground trams and buses.

Kaoshiung and Taipei have built rail transit to serve busy routes, complemented by trams and buses respectively. The rail transit acts as the backbone of the public transport system.

Lobbying for a single tram or bus system to serve high-demand routes makes no sense.

Penang Forum’s demand to replace the LRT plan with trams and buses will only expose commuters to high risk of collision and short-change Penangites with an inefficient public transport system. Instead of wasting time with Penang Forum’s demand, we should listen to the evaluation by Universiti Sains Malaysia.

USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor and professor of transportation engineering Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said: “This is why I believe having an urban rail system is imperative and urgently needed for Penang. Rail is on the highest hierarchy of public transport. Only rail will have a chance of changing the fate of public transport and provide a better option towards a demand and supply equilibrium situation.”

There is much for us to learn from real experts and real examples from Taiwan cities to improve our local public transport infrastructure.

JOSHUA WOO SZE ZENG

Former councillor of Seberang Prai Council