Less congestion with LRT3 line

Days of getting caught in traffic jams will be over for Klang and Shah Alam residents when the new Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) project from Bandar Utama to Klang is completed by 2020.

The RM9bil project will ferry passengers from 1Utama in Petaling Jaya to Johan Setia in Klang in 51 minutes. In total there will be 25 stations along the 36km-long route.

From 1Utama, the train will head to Damansara Utama, Dataran Prima and Glenmarie in Shah Alam.

From there, the alignment leads to the Shah Alam Section 13 stadium before going underground for two kilometres, passing through Section 12 and Section 14 near the Shah Alam city centre.

Students at UiTM can travel at ease as there will be a station in Section 2 near the university’s main campus.

Shah Alam’s largest neighbourhood, Section 7, will also have a station in the vicinity, dubbed the i-City station.

From there, the line will continue to the Bukit Raja station, passing through Klang town before moving down to areas such as Taman Selatan and Sri Andalas.

Shoppers can also board the train at Tesco Bukit Tinggi Station, head to Aeon Bukit Tinggi and make their way to Bandar Botanic before the final station at Johan Setia Klang.

Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) group managing director Azmi Abdul Aziz hopes to increase public transportation usage by at least 40% with the LRT3 line.

Keeping in mind the number of vehicles that will use the station, Azmi said there would be 10 park-and-ride stations with 5,000 parking bays at ground level.

The company has not designed a multi-storey carpark as yet since it intended to promote the use of feeder buses for all new stations.

The plan is to have a minimum of two new bus routes for each station within a 3km radius.

Come 2020, they believe at least 70,000 people will use the LRT3, added Azmi.

“We estimate four-car trains with 200 pax per car, or about 14,000 people per hour per direction (PPHPD) at the initial stages.

“The line will be integrated with the existing and future public transport networks at four stations, including One Utama with (MRT Sungai Buloh – Kajang Line), Station 3 with Kelana Jaya Line, SIRIM with BRT Kuala Lumpur – Klang and Klang Town with KTM Komuter,” added Azmi.

He also said they believe in setting up lines along catchment areas that would benefit the community at large.

In fact, based on studies done by Prasarana, it is estimated that 450,000 workers and 50,000 tertiary students live along the LRT 3 corridor.

Vigi Lakshmi, 58, from Shah Alam said the line would prove useful for people like her who depended on public transport most of her life.

“I still use the KTM to get to work in Kuala Lumpur and I believe the LRT will give another choice for commuters and distribute the number of passengers evenly between the two,” she added.

Charlene Nicholas, 29, welcomes the idea of a public transportation inside Glenmarie as there is none now.

“Most of the time, the workers in the area have to head to Subang KTM station to take a train,” said the Klang lass who worked in Glenmarie.

Charlene also said that the LRT would benefit Klang residents who battled the congestion daily to get from one point to another in the city.

Kota Raja Wanita MCA chief Chew Soo Mee said many people had been waiting for an LRT line for Shah Alam and Klang for a long time.

“It is good that it has made its way here, but we hope in future it will be extended to areas such as Taman Sentosa, Kampung Jawa, Kapar and Meru, which are highly populated areas,” she said.

Choo hopes Prasarana will have feeder buses from the stations to housing estates. - By The Star