Thursday, June 12, 2008

Day 1: Taking Bus Home From Workplace - Total DISASTER

It is a total DISASTER going back home by RapidKL bus. OMG !!!!

The journey as below:

5:30 pm - Leaving office
5:45 pm - Taking U89 bus from York (the air-conditioner company) Damansara Utama Jalan 21/1 to Kelana Jaya LRT station.
5:55 pm - U89 reached Kelana Jaya LRT Station

The nightmare began, wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait .. hungry, hungrier and hungriest .....

7:05 pm - U43 finally come after I have waited for a total of 70 minutes or 1 HOUR and 10 MINUTES
7:25 pm - U43 reached Sunway Toll towards Puchong
7:40 pm - U43 reached IOI Mall, Puchong
7:45 pm - U69 arrived, need to board this bus to go home
8:00 pm - U69 reached my home.

Notes: Weird though, I go to work by U69/U60 & U43 (2 buses only). But when I wanted to go home, I need to take U89, U43 & U69/U60 (3 buses). I'm wondering how RapidKL design their route. Sighhh .. Seriously they need to improve on this.

Another thing that frustates me the most, in the 70 minutes waiting, there is only 1 and ONLY ONE U89 reached Kelana Jaya. That simply means, if I have missed the 5:45pm U89 bus at Uptown, I will never be able to catch the 7:05pm U43 to go back to Puchong. OMG. I checked with my friend that live in the same area, he tooked the 6:50pm U89 reached Kelana Jaya at 7:30pm. Then luckily he managed to catch the 8:00pm U43 to go home. Huh ... breathtaking.

It was packed like hell. I'm like in a Sardine Can only. I have to stand on the footsteps of the bus. So dangerous. Appreciate if RapidKL and the authority can look into this. It is so different from the morning session where it is so comfortable.
So a total of 2 1/2 HOURS to go home which normally took me 1 HOUR to reach home.

Improvement:
1 - Increase the frequency of U89 & U43
2 - Shorten the duration between buses from 1 hour to 15/30 minutes during the peak hours from 5:30pm to 8:00pm. The wait time can be gradually increased after 8pm.

Disadvantages:
For the first day experience on public transport, I noticed few disadvantages:

1 - Lost plenty of precious time in waiting for bus.
2 - Lost precious time (1 1/2 hours) with family considering that I'm late for home for 1 1/2 hours. Decrease in communication with families member.
3 - Late having meal, increase the risk of gastric
4 - Very tired.
5 - Expose myself to pick-pocket. The bus is sardine packed.

My confidence level drops to 65% after the first day experience.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh!!

I'll start work at Uptown 1 soon. Was thinking to take the U89 bus from Kelana Jaya LRT station. May I know how long is the journey to the LRT? Usually how long is the waiting time? Is there any taxi stand in Uptown?

Alex Yap said...

Good day Anon !

Before I answer your question, are you coming from Puchong or you will take LRT to reach Kelana Jaya?

Distance between Kelana Jaya & LRT station is about 6 - 7km.

Time: taking bus from Uptown near York Jalan 21/1, about 10 minutes to reach LRT station.

Bear in mind U89 is a 1 hour per bus.

Alternatively, you can take bus to OneUtama and board U43 to go Kelana Jaya Station.

In fact it is ain't that back, considering if petrol price is so terrible nowadays. Waste a bit of time save a substantial amount of money.

Read more on http://yapyawwah.blogspot.com/search/label/Petrol.

Good Luck anon.

Alex Yap said...

Good day anon,

Miss out your question regarding taxi stand earlier on.

Yes, there are plenty of taxi waiting at KJ LRT station.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Alex.

Thanks for your reply.

I'll be taking LRT to Kelana Jaya station, from there take U89 bus to Uptown. Wow...the frequency is 1 hour?? I don't mind waiting longer going back that time, but I start work at 8 AM. One hour of waiting time is too much! If I miss that bus, then I dunno what to do already...unless I take taxi but it won't be cheap also. I need 1 hour journey by LRT, plus 1 hour allowance for feeder bus so I don't think taking public transport is practical for me then. Thanks to the M'sia government :(

Soon said...

Yeh, I agreed bus U89 is a disaster and joke! There have no improvement at all even I launched two complaints to rapidKL through phone about 6 months ago.
Several times, there have no U89 gone pass Persiaran Surian since 6:30am till 8:00am. But only U88 and Metro. So what I'm doing now is, taking U88 on 6:30am and arrive to Uptown by 7:15am. Changing another feeder bus, T656 to Taman Jaya's LRT station to go KL. What a jokes! I spent 1&1/2 to arrive LRT station.
I don't see any improvement since I start worked in KL for the past 3 years time. We are really far behind and this is not a "Capital" since lack of basic infrastructor.

Soon said...

Yeh, I agreed bus U89 is a disaster and joke! There have no improvement at all even I launched two complaints to rapidKL through phone about 6 months ago.
Several times, there have no U89 gone pass Persiaran Surian since 6:30am till 8:00am. But only U88 and Metro. So what I'm doing now is, taking U88 on 6:30am and arrive to Uptown by 7:15am.

Changing another feeder bus, T656 to Taman Jaya's LRT station to go KL. What a jokes! I spent 1&1/2 to arrive LRT station.

I don't see any improvement since I start worked in KL for the past 3 years time. Poor Malaysian and the taxpayer~

Anonymous said...

i totally agree with you on the u89 bus.that bus is practically non existent. your better off taking a bus to one utama and waiting for the u43.

Anonymous said...



Yes U89 is a disaster, there should be more bus in Damansara area. Seriously people working in Damansara area like The Curve or IKEA is suffering like hell!! It takes me 2hr 30 mins to reach home (I live in Sunway).