One card to ride them all

By K.M MAK

Rail operators announced in a recent joint press conference their commitment to use Tounch'n Go facilities as the common ticketing system.

The commitment come from KTM Berhad KTMB, Rapid KL, Express Rail Link ERL and KL Monorail. Both KTMB and Rapid KL have the system implemented, while ERL and KL Monorail will be upgrading their stations in the coming months.

The ease of payment will allow commuters using multiple transportation platforms to travel without having to buy different tickets from the different operators.

KL Monorail has installed and tested the common ticketing system and the service will be available from Aug 3.

"The need for a common ticketing application by the transport industry is long overdue and we are ready to support for the Government and collaborate with all transport operators on the use of Touch'n Go," said KL Monorail System managing director Bakhtiar Jamilee Abdul.

KTMB, which introduced the system on July 1, has an average of 3.5% of their 81,000 daily passengers using the service.

"We are confident the usage will continue to increase," said KTMB customer service general manager Roslan Mohammed.

Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Dr. Aminuddin Adnan said the system was being installed on the KLIA Ekspres and would undergo trials.

"We hope the system will be ready for use by early September," said Aminuddin.

He added that the Tounch'n Go system would be implemented on KLIA Transit after the budget was worked out as it involved additional gates and stations.

The rail operators will aslo be setting up more points of sales for Touch'n Go cards, with the latest located in KL Sentral.

Touch'n Go users can expect more services from middle of this month, such as recovery of the cash balance after cancellation of card and the ability to check the transactions online.

"Users will have to register with us for the services, but they are not forced to do so," said Rangkaian Segar Sdn Bhd Chief operating officer Swinder Grewal.

Grewal Said the technology to implement the cancellation of the card had always been availabe, but was never implemented in the past because it could cause problems for road users.

"If a driver uses a barred card, he could end up delaying the drivers behind him," said Grewal.