RM115.2m integrated LRT ticket system launched

Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) has launched a new RM115.2 million integrated ticketing system (ITS) that allows commuters to use a single ticket to travel along Klang Valley’s two LRT lines.

Group managing director Shahril Mokhtar said the ITS will be fully operational by the end of November and is aimed at commuters purchasing single-journey tickets, who make up 55 percent of total commuters.

“The new system employs a contactless smart token for single journey and return ticket journey. Commuters will just need to tell us their final destination,” he said during the launch at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

For now, the ITS will operate at 49 stations of the two LRT lines. There are plans to include KL Monorail in the ITS by next year and KTM Komuter stations by 2013.

Shahril said the Touch N Go payment cards will be more convenient as scanning of the cards would be reduced from four times to just two times, once the lines are integrated.

The cost includes construction work to link several stations on the Kelana Jaya-Line and Ampang-Line, such as the Masjid Jamek station. The new system will be gradually introduced from July onwards.

The project was awarded to the Indra-Iris Consortium, a Spanish-Malaysian joint venture, on April 6 last year. As of May 2011, 62 percent of the civil work has been completed.

Prasarana project manager Abdul Hamid Abdullah said the introduction of the ITS was necessary as the current system was obsolete and it was difficult to source supplies.

“They don’t produce the current system model anymore, we have to buy new system because we can no longer find any spare parts,” he said.

Shahril is confident that the new system will gradually increase ridership from 400,000 to 500,000 a day or 25 percent of the Klang Valley population, which is one of the federal government’s National Key Result Area (NKRA) target.

On how Prasarana intends to recoup its investment, Shahril said the company hopes to increase revenue by 10 to 15 percent through its acquisition and development of properties within the vicinity of the MRT stations, which will be constructed soon, and by selling advertisement space.