Friday 28 December 2012

RapidKuantan resumes ops despite downpour and floods

The RapidKuantan bus operations are back to normal despite the rain and floods in Pahang.

Its chief operating officer Zainurul Hakim Mohd said RapidKuantan was working to keep to its schedule of 15 minutes during peak hours despite the massive challenge of heavy rain and flash floods currently hitting Pahang and the entire east coast.

“Yesterday, we ran normal operations with 29 buses and three buses on stand-by. So far, everything is under control.

“Our services were only interrupted on Monday when we had to stop service for three hours from 11am because of flash floods in some areas in the town of Kuantan itself,” he said in a statement yesterday.

RapidKuantan, an operating arm of the bus division of Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana), commenced operations on Dec 1, servicing three routes under its first phase of operations with a fleet of 32 buses and 60 drivers.

“When we first started we had an average ridership of 5,000 passengers daily. But, we have had touched 13,000 passengers a day,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Land Public Transport Commission said RM63.4mil in government grants had been given to 108 bus companies since the beginning of the year.

States with companies that got the most in grants were Kelantan, Selangor and the Federal Territories, and Negri Sembilan with RM16mil, RM15mil, RM10.88mil respectively.

States that got the least were Sabah, Terengganu and Penang at RM917,496, RM219,688 and RM30,836 respectively.

Other states were listed as: Johor (RM5.8mil), Kedah (RM5.2mil), Perak (RM3.4mil), Sarawak (RM3.2mil), Malacca (RM1.9mil) and Pahang (RM1.8mil).

SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said: “We will give (grants) based on ... their income and their real costs. We will give them the difference (between the two) so that they can carry on their business.”
 

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