Riding The New Train Route

The much anticipated Sg. Buloh-Kajang MRT (also referred to as MRT1) started its Phase 1 operation yesterday, Dec. 16th. It consisted of 12 stations starting at Sg. Buloh and ending in Semantan. The stations are Sungai Buloh, Kampong Selamat, Kwasa Damansara, Kwasa Sentral, Kota Damansara, Surian, Mutiara Damansara, Bandar Utama, TTDI, Phileo Damansara, Pusat Bandar Damansara and Semantan. Let's hope this new transportation network can help alleviate the severe traffic congestion in the city and ordinary people can have another option to travel around Klang Valley, besides driving on their own. May be they can park their vehicles somewhere and ride the train partially on their way, to and from work. For five years I drove to work and I very much understand the stress and hassle of driving on some of Klang Valley roads. I think we have good roads but we have too many cars because the poor transportation system forces people to drive their cars. After the five years, I drove from home to the commuter train station, parked my car there and took the train to Shah Alam. I was lucky that my work place was in front of the Shah Alam commuter station, thanks to CIAST's early planners wise choice of location. The commuter train service was terrible during the period 3 or 4 years before I retired but is improving now.

Most of  the online maps are of poor resolutions,
so I snapped the image of the physical map
distributed by RapidKL staffs.

I had wanted to go to One Utama shopping centre and I thought I should try the new train. Parked my car at Port Klang Commuter Station and took the the commuter train to Subang Jaya. The interchange station between KTM Commuter Pelabuhan Kelang Line with the new MRT is only Sg. Buloh for the time being. That is too far away. For information, an interchange station is one where passengers do not need to exit the station building, in order to switch lines.  As commonly is the case, we need to to change for one line to another to effectively use the system. At Subang Jaya I changed to LRT Kelana Jaya Line heading towards Gombak and I got down 3 stations away at Lembah Subang station. From there, there is a feeder bus that will get you to Surian station on the Sg. Buloh-Kajang MRT. For one month, from Dec. 16th, the MRT and the feeder bus rides are free.

Spanking new, clean, bright
SURIAN station

Inside the new 4-coach train

From Surian I rode the train to Bandar Utama, two stations away.  There are feeder buses here too, to take you to One Utama. It is within walking distance actually. However, the road is busy with all manner of construction and it was a hot day so I took the feeder bus.

Festive air in One Utama, and
bright-coloured deco. A bit
too garish for me. 

Modest deco here

Since the ride is free, I took the MRT from Bandar Utama to Sg. Buloh on the way back. Scenic journey with urban landscape of PJ to industrial estate and rubber plantation near Sg. Buloh station.

Immediately after Bandar Utama station

Financial, commercial district of  PJ/Damansara

City dwellings around Damanasara

Another view from inside the MRT

Another view from inside the MRT

Rubber plantation near Sg. Buloh station

Wan Nyah inside the MRT going towards Sg. Buloh

From my experience, the LRTs are quite good in being punctual and having good frequency of service. Let's hope the MRT is also equally punctual and having good frequency as it is from the same company. KTM Commuter on the other hand still has lots and lots of room for improvement.
One thing I forgot to do while taking the ride is to note the ticket price. I still think it is still not quite convenient for me to go to One Utama taking the trains because I still need to take the feeder bus between Lembah Subang and Surian. Buses are notorious for being stuck in traffic jams. The route taken by the feeder bus goes around the busy parts of PJ and Damansara. It would be difficult to maintain punctuality when you are at the mercy of the road traffics. Once the interchange station Pasar Seni is completed then it would be a much better option for me.

The last image below is not of the MRT,  but of the KTM commuter train, which I took from Sg. Buloh to Pelabuhan Kelang yesterday evening.

View from the cracked window 
glass of the KTM train. It is quite 
common to find such windows 
on KTM commuter trains.