Ease their burden for better performance
INCONSISTENCY is the reason for the taxi service mess, says Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Malaysia.
“There were a few Cabinet ministers who wanted to change the taxi industry landscape but before they could, they were transferred to other ministerial portfolios.
"Their terms were too short to introduce steps to improve the situation,” said CILT's examination board secretary Rosena Mohd Ali.
In 2004, Rosena had conducted a preliminary study with Malaysian Institute of Transport (Mitrans) director Professor Sabariah Mohammad, titled Towards an Enterprising Taxi Industry.
"In our study, we proposed setting up a commercial drivers academy to educate drivers, especially about professionalism, defensive driving techniques, customer service, map knowledge, safety, vehicle maintenance and others,” said Rosena.
"The government should also introduce an insurance scheme for taxi drivers to safeguard their welfare and ease their burden so they will perform better."
She said there was also a need to limit the age of taxi drivers.
“With all due respect to veteran taxi drivers, the authorities need to check on their fi tness and health. Some taxi drivers are unable to cope with heavy traffic situations where there are more passengers, and only service less hectic areas."
(The Malay Mail)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
MARITIME - FISHING
Fishermen band together to overcome difficulty
VietNamNet Bridge -
Many fishermen choose to come together in voluntary fishing cooperation and mutual support groups to overcome the difficulty they face in the offshore fishing industry.
Nui Thanh District of the central province of Quang Nam is one of the provinces with the most fishing trawlers in the Central Vietnam.
170 cuttle-fishing boats of the district have been divided into groups of three to eight, to better facilitate cooperation among the fishermen in their work.
All boats from each group will set sail to sea together on every fishing trip.
The family of Huynh Ngoc Du, a 58-year-old fisherman in Tam Giang Commune, is a typical example of this “team work” approach in Quang Nam.
No longer going out to sea, Du is now the “captain” of a group of six fishing trawlers, two of his two sons and four of his neighbors.
He said these boats support each other by sharing the information about the fisheries.
If one of the boats finds a rich fishing ground, it will inform him via the ICOM communication system, and he will relay the information to the other boats in the group.
“If all 8 trawlers work together in one same area to catch fish, the time and cost will be much reduced,” he said. “Moreover, together we stand a much better chance of fighting against natural disaster or foreign invasions.”
The fishermen in Quang Ngai Province even go further. Their fishing corporations and mutual support groups are now sailing to the foreign seas in the Philippines and Malaysia.''
These fishermen have invested a significant sum in their trawlers, obtained passports for their crews and made direct contacts with foreign partners.
D.V.R., a fisherman in Binh Son District, said all of the crew members in his 20-trawler group are legally registered with the local authorities so they can legally catch fish in the Malaysian waters.
He said the much lower price of diesel in Malaysia, just VND8,000 a liter compared to VND21,100 in Vietnam, plus the high price of fishing products in Malaysia have enabled him to earn big profits from each fishing trip.
If the price for their catch in the Malaysian or Filipino markets is lower than in the domestic market, the boats will inform each other and they will sail back to Vietnam sell it, he added.
Truong Van Ngu, a fisherman who joins a mutual support group of 20 trawlers in Kien Giang Province, said the cooperation has helped reduce the risk and increase the efficiency of their offshore fishing operations.
He said four or five boats in his group are given the logistics responsibilities, which are to transport fuel to the others and to bring their catches ashore for sale once a week.
“We no longer need to head back every time the boat is full,” he said.
“This helps bring down the cost of sailing in and out, and thus gives us more time to focus on fishing.”
Although the teamwork scheme has helped fishermen overcome some difficulties, they still need to make further improvement to achieve bigger targets.
Nguyen Van Manh, an experienced fisherman in Phuoc Tinh, said most of the fishing boats in Ba Ria – Vung Tau are capable of fishing in the deep sea.
But at present, most of them only catch fish by trawling at the swallow depth of less than 200 meters.
Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, deputy director of Kien Giang Department of Agricultural and Rural Development, said the trawling technique consumes a lot of fuel and the products it captures usually have low values.
She said the provincial people’s committee has been encouraging fishermen to switch to fishing at the lowers level of the deep sea in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa fisheries.
This will save cost and increase the product values, she said.
Source: Tuoi Tre
VietNamNet Bridge -
Many fishermen choose to come together in voluntary fishing cooperation and mutual support groups to overcome the difficulty they face in the offshore fishing industry.
Nui Thanh District of the central province of Quang Nam is one of the provinces with the most fishing trawlers in the Central Vietnam.
170 cuttle-fishing boats of the district have been divided into groups of three to eight, to better facilitate cooperation among the fishermen in their work.
All boats from each group will set sail to sea together on every fishing trip.
The family of Huynh Ngoc Du, a 58-year-old fisherman in Tam Giang Commune, is a typical example of this “team work” approach in Quang Nam.
No longer going out to sea, Du is now the “captain” of a group of six fishing trawlers, two of his two sons and four of his neighbors.
He said these boats support each other by sharing the information about the fisheries.
If one of the boats finds a rich fishing ground, it will inform him via the ICOM communication system, and he will relay the information to the other boats in the group.
“If all 8 trawlers work together in one same area to catch fish, the time and cost will be much reduced,” he said. “Moreover, together we stand a much better chance of fighting against natural disaster or foreign invasions.”
The fishermen in Quang Ngai Province even go further. Their fishing corporations and mutual support groups are now sailing to the foreign seas in the Philippines and Malaysia.''
These fishermen have invested a significant sum in their trawlers, obtained passports for their crews and made direct contacts with foreign partners.
D.V.R., a fisherman in Binh Son District, said all of the crew members in his 20-trawler group are legally registered with the local authorities so they can legally catch fish in the Malaysian waters.
He said the much lower price of diesel in Malaysia, just VND8,000 a liter compared to VND21,100 in Vietnam, plus the high price of fishing products in Malaysia have enabled him to earn big profits from each fishing trip.
If the price for their catch in the Malaysian or Filipino markets is lower than in the domestic market, the boats will inform each other and they will sail back to Vietnam sell it, he added.
Truong Van Ngu, a fisherman who joins a mutual support group of 20 trawlers in Kien Giang Province, said the cooperation has helped reduce the risk and increase the efficiency of their offshore fishing operations.
He said four or five boats in his group are given the logistics responsibilities, which are to transport fuel to the others and to bring their catches ashore for sale once a week.
“We no longer need to head back every time the boat is full,” he said.
“This helps bring down the cost of sailing in and out, and thus gives us more time to focus on fishing.”
Although the teamwork scheme has helped fishermen overcome some difficulties, they still need to make further improvement to achieve bigger targets.
Nguyen Van Manh, an experienced fisherman in Phuoc Tinh, said most of the fishing boats in Ba Ria – Vung Tau are capable of fishing in the deep sea.
But at present, most of them only catch fish by trawling at the swallow depth of less than 200 meters.
Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, deputy director of Kien Giang Department of Agricultural and Rural Development, said the trawling technique consumes a lot of fuel and the products it captures usually have low values.
She said the provincial people’s committee has been encouraging fishermen to switch to fishing at the lowers level of the deep sea in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa fisheries.
This will save cost and increase the product values, she said.
Source: Tuoi Tre
Monday, June 20, 2011
BIMP EAGA - Infrastructure Investment
Infra lack preventing Mindanao’s dev’t as BIMP-EAGA transport hub
By Rico Biliran | Tuesday| June 21, 2011
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – The lack of infrastructure investments and deflated transport and logistics system in Mindanao is holding back the island from becoming one of the strategic transport hubs of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines – East Asean Growth Areas (BIMP-EAGA), a top government official said.
“This is mainly why we are pushing through the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan to interconnect Mindanao through state-of-the-art infrastructure,” Sec.
Luwalhati Antonino, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chairperson, said in a statement.
She noted that Mindanao, one of the Philippines-EAGA focus areas, has a great potential to become a transport hub in the sub-region.
The Mindanao 2020 is 20-year peace and development framework for the island from 2011 to 2030 initiated by MinDa.
Meanwhile, the BIMP-EAGA Transport, Infrastructure, and ICT Development Cluster meeting will be held from June 21 to 23, 2011 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.
Key transport industry players in the BIMP-EAGA are poised for greater mobility of trade, tourism and investment across the sub-region as they are set to discuss significant updates and improvements on cross-border air, land and sea transport connectivity, the MinDA statement said.
The meeting will look into the status of the various priority projects geared towards enhancing connectivity in the sub-region, including the establishment of new priority air routes and revival of suspended air and sea transport linkages.
Antonino said enhancing transport connectivity and infrastructure investments are crucial initiatives that support Eaga’s aim of becoming the regional food basket of the Asean.
“Strategic ports and stations in the Eaga sub-region will facilitate faster transfer of goods and services, reduce logistic cost, and promote productivity and competency,” the MinDa chair added.
The cluster will also review the proposed provision of incentives to support transport infrastructure and transport services, various transportation studies as well as pending agreements such as the Memoranda of Understanding on Non-convention Sized Ships, Transit and Inter-state Transport, and on the expansion of air linkages.
To be held simultaneously with the cluster meeting is the BIMP-EAGA CEO Forum on Information and Communications Technology that will gather key private sector players in the sub-region’s telecommunications and information technology sector to discuss and agree on major ICT projects.
Among the priority ICT projects to be discussed are the $15O-million alternate submarine cable link project dubbed the BIMP-EAGA Rink, an alternative network routing through either submarine cable or satellite.
The proposed BIMP-EAGA Rink will cover the entire Mindanao, Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah and Tarakan via the terrestrial Kalimantan. Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua in Indonesia are also eyed as potential international gateways of the project. (Rico Biliran/MindaNews)
By Rico Biliran | Tuesday| June 21, 2011
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – The lack of infrastructure investments and deflated transport and logistics system in Mindanao is holding back the island from becoming one of the strategic transport hubs of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines – East Asean Growth Areas (BIMP-EAGA), a top government official said.
“This is mainly why we are pushing through the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan to interconnect Mindanao through state-of-the-art infrastructure,” Sec.
Luwalhati Antonino, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chairperson, said in a statement.
She noted that Mindanao, one of the Philippines-EAGA focus areas, has a great potential to become a transport hub in the sub-region.
The Mindanao 2020 is 20-year peace and development framework for the island from 2011 to 2030 initiated by MinDa.
Meanwhile, the BIMP-EAGA Transport, Infrastructure, and ICT Development Cluster meeting will be held from June 21 to 23, 2011 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.
Key transport industry players in the BIMP-EAGA are poised for greater mobility of trade, tourism and investment across the sub-region as they are set to discuss significant updates and improvements on cross-border air, land and sea transport connectivity, the MinDA statement said.
The meeting will look into the status of the various priority projects geared towards enhancing connectivity in the sub-region, including the establishment of new priority air routes and revival of suspended air and sea transport linkages.
Antonino said enhancing transport connectivity and infrastructure investments are crucial initiatives that support Eaga’s aim of becoming the regional food basket of the Asean.
“Strategic ports and stations in the Eaga sub-region will facilitate faster transfer of goods and services, reduce logistic cost, and promote productivity and competency,” the MinDa chair added.
The cluster will also review the proposed provision of incentives to support transport infrastructure and transport services, various transportation studies as well as pending agreements such as the Memoranda of Understanding on Non-convention Sized Ships, Transit and Inter-state Transport, and on the expansion of air linkages.
To be held simultaneously with the cluster meeting is the BIMP-EAGA CEO Forum on Information and Communications Technology that will gather key private sector players in the sub-region’s telecommunications and information technology sector to discuss and agree on major ICT projects.
Among the priority ICT projects to be discussed are the $15O-million alternate submarine cable link project dubbed the BIMP-EAGA Rink, an alternative network routing through either submarine cable or satellite.
The proposed BIMP-EAGA Rink will cover the entire Mindanao, Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah and Tarakan via the terrestrial Kalimantan. Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua in Indonesia are also eyed as potential international gateways of the project. (Rico Biliran/MindaNews)
BIMP-EAGA
Expansion of Ro-Ro route within BIMP-EAGA ok'd
By Allen V. Estabillo | Sunday| October 31, 2010
HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/30 October) — Southeast Asia has adopted a master plan that would further link up key growth areas such as expansion of the Philippines’Roll on/Roll off (Ro-Ro) system into the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) and pave the way for the region’s full development as a major market and production base in the next decade.
The heads of states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, formally adopted at the ongoing 17th regional summit here the 91-page Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, which includes a proposal for the development of a regional nautical highway that would essentially expand the Philippines Roll on/Roll off (Ro-Ro) system.
The plan, which will serve the main vehicle of the 10-nation bloc’s planned economic integration by 2015, intends to enhance the physical, institutional, and people-to-people interconnectivity across Southeast Asia.
Pushpanathan Sundram, ASEAN deputy secretary general for the ASEAN Economic Community, said the master plan essentially puts into action the ongoing regional integration process through the implementation at least 15 identified priority projects within the region.
These include six major physical infrastructure, five institutional and four people-to-people, including tourism, connectivity initiatives, he said.
“These are priority projects that would be implemented as soon as possible so we can see some early and quick wins,” he said in a press briefing at the National Convention Center here.
To improve physical connectivity, the plan cited the need to address the lingering problem on poor quality of roads, incomplete road networks, missing railway links, inadequate maritime and port infrastructure, inland waterways and aviation facilities, widening of digital divide, and growing demand for power in the region.
Among the identified strategies is the establishment of a regional RoRo network that will connect the region’s archipelagic areas and open up efficient and reliable shipping routes.
The opening of Philippines Nautical Highway or Ro-Ro system has provided an alternative and cheaper mode of domestic travel and drastically cut down the shipping costs of products coming from various production bases in the country.
Citing an impact assessment conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the country’s Ro-Ro system, the plan cited that “the system demonstrate significant benefits in terms of reduction in transport costs, the creation of new regional links and expansion of regional markets, more efficient shipment of goods and people that have particularly benefited the poorer provinces in the maritime routes, acceleration of local area development, realignment of logistical practices with more frequent deliveries and greater competitive pressure on the domestic shipping industry.”
Pushpanathan said the proposed regional Ro-Ro network will take off with the expansion of the Philippines’ Ro-Ro system in areas under the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
He recalled that during the 6th BIMP-EAGA Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand last year, the heads of states of the four sub-regional grouping initially agreed to expand the Ro-Ro routes within the region.
“We’re taking leverage on these projects that are being done as part of the overall regional connectivity,” Pushpanathan said. To complement the establishment of the regional Ro-Ro network, he said they initially identified at least 47 ports within the region to undergo immediate improvements and expansions to specifically accommodate Ro-Ro ships or vessels.
In terms of road networks, Pushpanathan said the master plan has set the expansion of the “Trans-Asian Highway” to pave the way for the establishment of the ASEAN highway network.
The project includes the improvement of at least 3,073 kilometers of the designated transit transport routes from Luzon to Mindanao and the upgrading of some 211.5 kilometers of roads that are classified as below Class III standards, he said.
Under the institutional connectivity component, Pushpanathan said the identified initiatives will be more focused on s trade and transport facilitation, mutual recognition and investment facilitation.
He said the people-to-people connectivity aspect dwells on the implementation of strategies that will ensure the seamless flow of goods and services as well as facilitate tourism-related investments and activities within the region.
Pushpanathan said ASEAN leaders have agreed to establish a special body that will handle the implementation of the master plan and help come up with the projects’ financing requirements.
“We still have to determine the exact funding needed for these projects through feasibility studies. For the financing part, we’re looking at our existing cooperation with our dialogue and development partners and the setting up of an infrastructure fund that will be made of contributions from the member-states,” he said.
According to a 2009 ADB and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) paper, Southeast Asia needs to spend around US$290 billion on specific regional infrastructure projects in transport and energy that are currently in the pipeline.
In another working paper, ADBI said that ASEAN countries will require infrastructure investments amounting to US$596 billion during 2006-2015, with an average investment of US$60 billion per year (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
By Allen V. Estabillo | Sunday| October 31, 2010
HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/30 October) — Southeast Asia has adopted a master plan that would further link up key growth areas such as expansion of the Philippines’Roll on/Roll off (Ro-Ro) system into the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) and pave the way for the region’s full development as a major market and production base in the next decade.
The heads of states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, formally adopted at the ongoing 17th regional summit here the 91-page Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, which includes a proposal for the development of a regional nautical highway that would essentially expand the Philippines Roll on/Roll off (Ro-Ro) system.
The plan, which will serve the main vehicle of the 10-nation bloc’s planned economic integration by 2015, intends to enhance the physical, institutional, and people-to-people interconnectivity across Southeast Asia.
Pushpanathan Sundram, ASEAN deputy secretary general for the ASEAN Economic Community, said the master plan essentially puts into action the ongoing regional integration process through the implementation at least 15 identified priority projects within the region.
These include six major physical infrastructure, five institutional and four people-to-people, including tourism, connectivity initiatives, he said.
“These are priority projects that would be implemented as soon as possible so we can see some early and quick wins,” he said in a press briefing at the National Convention Center here.
To improve physical connectivity, the plan cited the need to address the lingering problem on poor quality of roads, incomplete road networks, missing railway links, inadequate maritime and port infrastructure, inland waterways and aviation facilities, widening of digital divide, and growing demand for power in the region.
Among the identified strategies is the establishment of a regional RoRo network that will connect the region’s archipelagic areas and open up efficient and reliable shipping routes.
The opening of Philippines Nautical Highway or Ro-Ro system has provided an alternative and cheaper mode of domestic travel and drastically cut down the shipping costs of products coming from various production bases in the country.
Citing an impact assessment conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the country’s Ro-Ro system, the plan cited that “the system demonstrate significant benefits in terms of reduction in transport costs, the creation of new regional links and expansion of regional markets, more efficient shipment of goods and people that have particularly benefited the poorer provinces in the maritime routes, acceleration of local area development, realignment of logistical practices with more frequent deliveries and greater competitive pressure on the domestic shipping industry.”
Pushpanathan said the proposed regional Ro-Ro network will take off with the expansion of the Philippines’ Ro-Ro system in areas under the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
He recalled that during the 6th BIMP-EAGA Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand last year, the heads of states of the four sub-regional grouping initially agreed to expand the Ro-Ro routes within the region.
“We’re taking leverage on these projects that are being done as part of the overall regional connectivity,” Pushpanathan said. To complement the establishment of the regional Ro-Ro network, he said they initially identified at least 47 ports within the region to undergo immediate improvements and expansions to specifically accommodate Ro-Ro ships or vessels.
In terms of road networks, Pushpanathan said the master plan has set the expansion of the “Trans-Asian Highway” to pave the way for the establishment of the ASEAN highway network.
The project includes the improvement of at least 3,073 kilometers of the designated transit transport routes from Luzon to Mindanao and the upgrading of some 211.5 kilometers of roads that are classified as below Class III standards, he said.
Under the institutional connectivity component, Pushpanathan said the identified initiatives will be more focused on s trade and transport facilitation, mutual recognition and investment facilitation.
He said the people-to-people connectivity aspect dwells on the implementation of strategies that will ensure the seamless flow of goods and services as well as facilitate tourism-related investments and activities within the region.
Pushpanathan said ASEAN leaders have agreed to establish a special body that will handle the implementation of the master plan and help come up with the projects’ financing requirements.
“We still have to determine the exact funding needed for these projects through feasibility studies. For the financing part, we’re looking at our existing cooperation with our dialogue and development partners and the setting up of an infrastructure fund that will be made of contributions from the member-states,” he said.
According to a 2009 ADB and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) paper, Southeast Asia needs to spend around US$290 billion on specific regional infrastructure projects in transport and energy that are currently in the pipeline.
In another working paper, ADBI said that ASEAN countries will require infrastructure investments amounting to US$596 billion during 2006-2015, with an average investment of US$60 billion per year (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
CITY LIVING - WALKWAYS
High-Speed Moving Walkways (AKA, Slidewalks)
(by Troubadour of skscraperpage forum)
There have been a number of experiments with high-speed moving walkways over the past few decades (largely in Europe) - all of them for relatively short distances inside transportation terminals, and none of them successful. Nevertheless, the technology has proven its enduring conceptual appeal by the fact that experiments keep happening, and innovative new approaches explored.
I. The Past & Technical Challenges
Now, one's definition of "high speed" has to be pretty humble when talking about the trials that have been done. The fastest attempted so far involved two systems - one in Geneva in the '70s and one in Paris in the '80s - that took riders at 9 mph, or about three times a brisk but unhurried walking pace. The key challenge with these and the other systems, as you can imagine, was in acceleration and deceleration.
Essentially, it comes down to being able to keep your balance in the transitions, which in practical terms means handholds are necessary even if transitions are broken up into multiple, gradual steps. This is not a simple thing, because moving handholds are mostly known through experience with escalators, in which case they are belts moving along unbroken sidewalls. But many of the designs for moving walkways relied on parallel strips moving at different speeds, which means people would have to move horizontally, breaking contact with one handhold and passing through a gap in the other.
Such gaps would be a big problem - while in transition, the person would have no stabilizing hold, having let go of the opposite rail and passing across gaps in the intermediate handrail big enough to safely cross (which means they wouldn't be within reach during the transition). But even if there were only two parallel strips and no intermediate handrail - thus allowing people who are safely on either side to rely on one hold exclusively - the line between the belts would be dangerous: Falling on it could easily shred skin, prevent a person from getting up and regaining their balance, and cause chain-reaction pedestrian pileups.
Another approach has tread plates independent of each other that can accelerate mid-course by spreading out or shift laterally into a faster lane. While this could allow each tread plate to carry its own handholds with it, the underlying mechanics of the plates' motions proved complex and unreliable. However, the principle of single-track, accordion-like behavior being utilized for acceleration and deceleration was found potentially practical for belt-fed systems.
On a personal note, I will say that in my modest experience with (slow) moving walkways, my main issue was that if I walked forward on them rather than standing still, the scenery passed to the side much faster than my brain was telling my gut to expect, so there was a danger of queasiness if I didn't stay focused straight ahead. This probably would not be an issue at much higher speeds, since it would be more like walking down the aisle of a train than merely seeing things moving by at jogging speeds while you're merely walking.
Another issue is that for any significant distance, having the movement of the entire system depend on the functioning of the entire length of the walkway increases the likelihood of failure. So implementing moving walkways as a general transportation method for cities has not looked very practical - and yet its promise remains.
II. The Present & Current Implementations
Supposedly, there is currently a "high-speed" (4.3 mph) walkway at Toronto Pearson airport that relies on accordion-like expansion of the beltway for acceleration, followed by contraction near the end for deceleration. However, it appears the effect is very modest. Virtually every moving walkway currently in use - most of them are in airports, luxury shopping malls, or large casinos - is merely an "augmented walking" system that roughly doubles your speed if you walk forward normally on it. They are not, in other words, real transportation systems so much as minor conveniences if you would rather get from Building A to Building B in 2 minutes rather than 4.
Paris Metro had installed a high-speed walkway at Montparnasse a few years ago, but abandoned it due to the frequency of accidents, and the apparent need for ham-handed restrictions like having personnel available whose only job was to stop people from getting on it unless they had at least one hand free to hold on to the rail - basically, they were forced to act as roller-coaster attendants for something that was supposed to be a public transit system.
III. The Future & Potential Applications
We can imagine some conceptually trivial solutions to these problems that do not appear to have been tried yet, although I don't doubt there are real technical challenges involved: For instance, with two-parallel-track belt systems, there could be hanging handholds such as in subways or buses that are projected by arms attached to the handrails on opposite sides. In this way, you could "monkey-bar" your way from one overhead handhold to the next until you are at the transition, and then grab a faster-moving hold just as you step across, not letting go of you original hold until you'd grasped the new one.
Falling on the transition between tracks could still be painful, but the differential motion of the belts in the presence of other people who are strongly stabilized would just force you on to one or the other belts. People would have to leave the walkway before the projecting arms could be folded back into the belt, but that doesn't seem especially complex in concept - just feed the tread portion of the belt under the ground well before the arms go under, and then have them both loop around beneath the ground some distance after that.
Another idea that I haven't heard about being tried would be angled aisles of strong elastic webbing with flexible vertical struts. This would allow for more than two tracks in a parallel-track system, since you wouldn't need overhead handholds. In fact, perhaps this webbing folds from the vertical into seats in the middle of the track so people going long distances can sit down. Folding the webs at the end of the track would be no bother, and cleaning would be easier than with fabric seat cushions like in buses or trains.
With safety features like this, it seems more likely that walkways could achieve significantly higher speeds, with several transitional tracks that would otherwise not be safe to cross. And, of course, with higher speeds, that naturally leads to a question about what greater distances might be practicable, which in turn leads us back to the problem of the whole pathway being dependent on a single system to function. So clearly without some additional changes, the safety features would not extend distances to more than a few times what they already are, because the system would grow increasingly balky the longer you made the pathway.
Enter maglev walkways: Magnetic levitation of the tread surface a few millimeters above the active surface. If the power goes out, the system doesn't jerk to a stop and send everyone tumbling - it just no longer pushes/pulls it forward, so the tread surface coasts to a stop, remaining levitated (or at least electrically lubricated) by the properties of the underside materials.
Since you've separated the tread from direct contact with the systems moving it, it could be fail-safed - i.e., any failure of those systems would only be reflected in a gradual reduction in speed averaged over the entire walkway, along with a predictable and manageable increase in shear and/or tension forces on the tread near where the failure occurs. This wouldn't guard against direct obstructions of the tread itself, but protecting a long strip of relatively thin, solid, simple material with no moving parts is actually a lot easier mechanically than dealing with machinery.
As to the remaining safety objections, I would simply ask this: Consider how many pedestrians die every year interacting with automobiles in ways that are totally unnecessary, both in terms of the people using them and the people who die by them. Millions are forced into cars and dangerous freeways purely by the design of their cities and regions, and people who walk anyway are then forced to deal with the consequences. What if there were a much cheaper solution to this problem than subways; a more accessible and regular solution than buses; and a more flexible solution than light rail?
If you could just walk out your door and within a few dozen steps and thirty seconds' time later be going 30 mph the whole of your trip (when not changing walkways), would you actually wait 10 minutes for a bus, train, or subway that constantly starts and stops, and has to flow with traffic? If you could have the pedestrian experience over much larger distances, would you still rely on a car for those distances? Would you still accept the relatively acute dangers, discomforts, and inconveniences of bicycle transit? There is clearly a significant urban niche for high-speed moving sidewalks if the safety and reliability issues can be reasonably dealt with.
(by Troubadour of skscraperpage forum)
There have been a number of experiments with high-speed moving walkways over the past few decades (largely in Europe) - all of them for relatively short distances inside transportation terminals, and none of them successful. Nevertheless, the technology has proven its enduring conceptual appeal by the fact that experiments keep happening, and innovative new approaches explored.
I. The Past & Technical Challenges
Now, one's definition of "high speed" has to be pretty humble when talking about the trials that have been done. The fastest attempted so far involved two systems - one in Geneva in the '70s and one in Paris in the '80s - that took riders at 9 mph, or about three times a brisk but unhurried walking pace. The key challenge with these and the other systems, as you can imagine, was in acceleration and deceleration.
Essentially, it comes down to being able to keep your balance in the transitions, which in practical terms means handholds are necessary even if transitions are broken up into multiple, gradual steps. This is not a simple thing, because moving handholds are mostly known through experience with escalators, in which case they are belts moving along unbroken sidewalls. But many of the designs for moving walkways relied on parallel strips moving at different speeds, which means people would have to move horizontally, breaking contact with one handhold and passing through a gap in the other.
Such gaps would be a big problem - while in transition, the person would have no stabilizing hold, having let go of the opposite rail and passing across gaps in the intermediate handrail big enough to safely cross (which means they wouldn't be within reach during the transition). But even if there were only two parallel strips and no intermediate handrail - thus allowing people who are safely on either side to rely on one hold exclusively - the line between the belts would be dangerous: Falling on it could easily shred skin, prevent a person from getting up and regaining their balance, and cause chain-reaction pedestrian pileups.
Another approach has tread plates independent of each other that can accelerate mid-course by spreading out or shift laterally into a faster lane. While this could allow each tread plate to carry its own handholds with it, the underlying mechanics of the plates' motions proved complex and unreliable. However, the principle of single-track, accordion-like behavior being utilized for acceleration and deceleration was found potentially practical for belt-fed systems.
On a personal note, I will say that in my modest experience with (slow) moving walkways, my main issue was that if I walked forward on them rather than standing still, the scenery passed to the side much faster than my brain was telling my gut to expect, so there was a danger of queasiness if I didn't stay focused straight ahead. This probably would not be an issue at much higher speeds, since it would be more like walking down the aisle of a train than merely seeing things moving by at jogging speeds while you're merely walking.
Another issue is that for any significant distance, having the movement of the entire system depend on the functioning of the entire length of the walkway increases the likelihood of failure. So implementing moving walkways as a general transportation method for cities has not looked very practical - and yet its promise remains.
II. The Present & Current Implementations
Supposedly, there is currently a "high-speed" (4.3 mph) walkway at Toronto Pearson airport that relies on accordion-like expansion of the beltway for acceleration, followed by contraction near the end for deceleration. However, it appears the effect is very modest. Virtually every moving walkway currently in use - most of them are in airports, luxury shopping malls, or large casinos - is merely an "augmented walking" system that roughly doubles your speed if you walk forward normally on it. They are not, in other words, real transportation systems so much as minor conveniences if you would rather get from Building A to Building B in 2 minutes rather than 4.
Paris Metro had installed a high-speed walkway at Montparnasse a few years ago, but abandoned it due to the frequency of accidents, and the apparent need for ham-handed restrictions like having personnel available whose only job was to stop people from getting on it unless they had at least one hand free to hold on to the rail - basically, they were forced to act as roller-coaster attendants for something that was supposed to be a public transit system.
III. The Future & Potential Applications
We can imagine some conceptually trivial solutions to these problems that do not appear to have been tried yet, although I don't doubt there are real technical challenges involved: For instance, with two-parallel-track belt systems, there could be hanging handholds such as in subways or buses that are projected by arms attached to the handrails on opposite sides. In this way, you could "monkey-bar" your way from one overhead handhold to the next until you are at the transition, and then grab a faster-moving hold just as you step across, not letting go of you original hold until you'd grasped the new one.
Falling on the transition between tracks could still be painful, but the differential motion of the belts in the presence of other people who are strongly stabilized would just force you on to one or the other belts. People would have to leave the walkway before the projecting arms could be folded back into the belt, but that doesn't seem especially complex in concept - just feed the tread portion of the belt under the ground well before the arms go under, and then have them both loop around beneath the ground some distance after that.
Another idea that I haven't heard about being tried would be angled aisles of strong elastic webbing with flexible vertical struts. This would allow for more than two tracks in a parallel-track system, since you wouldn't need overhead handholds. In fact, perhaps this webbing folds from the vertical into seats in the middle of the track so people going long distances can sit down. Folding the webs at the end of the track would be no bother, and cleaning would be easier than with fabric seat cushions like in buses or trains.
With safety features like this, it seems more likely that walkways could achieve significantly higher speeds, with several transitional tracks that would otherwise not be safe to cross. And, of course, with higher speeds, that naturally leads to a question about what greater distances might be practicable, which in turn leads us back to the problem of the whole pathway being dependent on a single system to function. So clearly without some additional changes, the safety features would not extend distances to more than a few times what they already are, because the system would grow increasingly balky the longer you made the pathway.
Enter maglev walkways: Magnetic levitation of the tread surface a few millimeters above the active surface. If the power goes out, the system doesn't jerk to a stop and send everyone tumbling - it just no longer pushes/pulls it forward, so the tread surface coasts to a stop, remaining levitated (or at least electrically lubricated) by the properties of the underside materials.
Since you've separated the tread from direct contact with the systems moving it, it could be fail-safed - i.e., any failure of those systems would only be reflected in a gradual reduction in speed averaged over the entire walkway, along with a predictable and manageable increase in shear and/or tension forces on the tread near where the failure occurs. This wouldn't guard against direct obstructions of the tread itself, but protecting a long strip of relatively thin, solid, simple material with no moving parts is actually a lot easier mechanically than dealing with machinery.
As to the remaining safety objections, I would simply ask this: Consider how many pedestrians die every year interacting with automobiles in ways that are totally unnecessary, both in terms of the people using them and the people who die by them. Millions are forced into cars and dangerous freeways purely by the design of their cities and regions, and people who walk anyway are then forced to deal with the consequences. What if there were a much cheaper solution to this problem than subways; a more accessible and regular solution than buses; and a more flexible solution than light rail?
If you could just walk out your door and within a few dozen steps and thirty seconds' time later be going 30 mph the whole of your trip (when not changing walkways), would you actually wait 10 minutes for a bus, train, or subway that constantly starts and stops, and has to flow with traffic? If you could have the pedestrian experience over much larger distances, would you still rely on a car for those distances? Would you still accept the relatively acute dangers, discomforts, and inconveniences of bicycle transit? There is clearly a significant urban niche for high-speed moving sidewalks if the safety and reliability issues can be reasonably dealt with.
MARITIME - FUEL SUBSIDY
Fishers threaten to boycott over slashed diesel subsidies
Monday, June 06, 2011
Malaysian deepsea fishing trawlers will not sail if the price of diesel goes up. Nationwide, trawler operators said they would not head out to fish if the government gets rid of super subsidies on fuel – which it already did last week.
All operators from Sarawak together with their associates across Malaysia have united and said they will boycott the sea if the government does not change its mind. The Perak Trawlers Association threatened a boycott on 11 June.
“We will be meeting all our counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia on 11 June to discuss the matter,” said Kuching Trawlers Association Secretary Tan Boon Ting. “We will stand together over this issue.”
The secretary warned that if everyone agrees they may call for a boycott, reports Free Malaysia Today.
“The cutting of fuel subsidy should not be taken lightly,” he affirmed.
All Malaysian associations, he said, agree that slashing the subsidy will have a deleterious effect on their livelihood, which has already fallen due to lower catches in recent years. Many have considered switching professions, reports Borneo Post.
He wants the subsidies back for C2 trawlers.
“If the cut is in place, we will have to pay extra MYR 10,000 (USD 3,308) per trip. It is impossible for us to absorb this extra cost,” Tan said.
“If we do that, members will have to adjust the price of fish and the consumers will pay higher prices. And it will have serious repercussions on the fishing industry,” he expounded.
Last month, the Sarawak Fishing Vessels Association reacted immediately to the government’s announcement by asking that it overturn its decision. Association chairman Ha Tung Ting issued a caveat saying there would be “serious repercussions” if the government proceeded with its plan.
Among the groups directly affected by the government’s decision are trawlers and other logistics-related groups.
But the government appears adamant, as cutting subsidies will save it MYR 659.30 million (USD 218.1 million).
The Sarawak Lorries Transport Association (SLTA) answered by raising transport charges from 20 to 30 per cent. President Jong Foh Jit justified the move by explaining that its members had no other way to cover their overhead costs.
Other industries to be hit by the government’s decision on subsidies are expected to increase their rates similarly.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Malaysian deepsea fishing trawlers will not sail if the price of diesel goes up. Nationwide, trawler operators said they would not head out to fish if the government gets rid of super subsidies on fuel – which it already did last week.
All operators from Sarawak together with their associates across Malaysia have united and said they will boycott the sea if the government does not change its mind. The Perak Trawlers Association threatened a boycott on 11 June.
“We will be meeting all our counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia on 11 June to discuss the matter,” said Kuching Trawlers Association Secretary Tan Boon Ting. “We will stand together over this issue.”
The secretary warned that if everyone agrees they may call for a boycott, reports Free Malaysia Today.
“The cutting of fuel subsidy should not be taken lightly,” he affirmed.
All Malaysian associations, he said, agree that slashing the subsidy will have a deleterious effect on their livelihood, which has already fallen due to lower catches in recent years. Many have considered switching professions, reports Borneo Post.
He wants the subsidies back for C2 trawlers.
“If the cut is in place, we will have to pay extra MYR 10,000 (USD 3,308) per trip. It is impossible for us to absorb this extra cost,” Tan said.
“If we do that, members will have to adjust the price of fish and the consumers will pay higher prices. And it will have serious repercussions on the fishing industry,” he expounded.
Last month, the Sarawak Fishing Vessels Association reacted immediately to the government’s announcement by asking that it overturn its decision. Association chairman Ha Tung Ting issued a caveat saying there would be “serious repercussions” if the government proceeded with its plan.
Among the groups directly affected by the government’s decision are trawlers and other logistics-related groups.
But the government appears adamant, as cutting subsidies will save it MYR 659.30 million (USD 218.1 million).
The Sarawak Lorries Transport Association (SLTA) answered by raising transport charges from 20 to 30 per cent. President Jong Foh Jit justified the move by explaining that its members had no other way to cover their overhead costs.
Other industries to be hit by the government’s decision on subsidies are expected to increase their rates similarly.
Monday, June 13, 2011
AVIATION
AirAsia may buy 200 Airbus planes
AirAsia could buy as many as 200 Airbus jets in a landmark deal shaping up to dominate the Paris Air Show, industry sources said.
The deal is among the most keenly awaited in a recovering civil aviation sector, and could help to determine the success of the European planemaker's efforts to stymie a draft project by rival Boeing to design a new 150-200 seat aircraft, reported Reuters.
Under pressure from airlines to provide a cushion against high fuel costs, Airbus is marketing a new version of its best-selling A320 passenger jet with new engines which it says will save 15 percent in fuel bills starting from late 2015.
Malaysia-based AirAsia has said it is considering buying at least 150 of the "A320neo" aircraft as the region's largest budget carrier expands in the face of high oil prices.
But industry sources told Reuters that the range of negotiations is higher than previously expected and could reach 200 planes, trumping a 180-plane provisional order from India's IndiGo as the industry's largest ever by number of aircraft.
"They are talking about 150 to 200 aircraft," an industry source familiar with the negotiations said, asking not to be named.
Such a deal would be worth US$14 billion to $18 billion at list prices, depending on the exact model of aircraft involved, though big plane orders tend to generate significant discounts.
The record for the largest Airbus deal by value is held by
Emirates airline with a $22 billion purchase in 2007.
EADS subsidiary Airbus declined to comment. A spokesperson for AirAsia said talks were continuing.
Both sides hope to announce the deal at the Paris Air Show on June 20-26 but the size of the deal and its timing remain uncertain because of the sums involved, industry sources said.
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes has set his sights on doubling the size of the nine-year-old airline to rival Southwest Airlines' fleet of more than 500 jets.
The airline has already ordered 175 of the original design of A320, of which 86 have yet to be delivered.
However, in a sign that the Airbus deal should not be taken for granted, Fernandes wrote on Twitter on Friday that he was asked to meet aircraft manufacturer Bombardier in Montreal. The Canadian company wants to challenge Airbus and Boeing with its C Series planes.
Fernandes has regularly broken the secretive protocol of aircraft negotiations by tweeting about the talks.
Boeing is mulling whether to follow Airbus down the "re-engining" route by tinkering with its 737 passenger jet or making more revolutionary changes with an all-new plane offering even bigger fuel savings to cash-tight airlines from 2020.
"The A320neo appears to have good traction with current A320 fliers, particularly low-cost carriers," said Rob Stallard, aviation analyst at RBC Capital Markets, who predicts around 300 orders for the $90-million jetliner by the end of the year.
"Even if Boeing goes ahead with a clean-sheet new narrow-body with entry into service around 2020, we think most Airbus narrow-body customers will stick with the neo due to the high cost of switching providers," he added.
Airline executives say a key factor for Boeing will be whether Airbus manages to convert any of its major traditional clients, especially US-based ones such as Southwest.
The AirAsia order, if confirmed, could also give a much-needed boost to transatlantic consortium CFM International.
Industry sources say the Cincinnati-based company is the front-
runner to win a lucrative contract for the airplanes' engines, breaking a drought of orders after rival Pratt & Whitney scooped up most orders so far for the A320neo.
CFM is a joint venture between General Electric and France's Safran.
Pratt & Whitney has developed an engine called the Geared Turbofan with a change of architecture for the narrow-body 737 and A320 market, the largest slice of the commercial aerospace industry worth $1.7 trillion in plane sales over 20 years.
CFM's new LEAP-X engine depends more on new materials.
AirAsia could buy as many as 200 Airbus jets in a landmark deal shaping up to dominate the Paris Air Show, industry sources said.
The deal is among the most keenly awaited in a recovering civil aviation sector, and could help to determine the success of the European planemaker's efforts to stymie a draft project by rival Boeing to design a new 150-200 seat aircraft, reported Reuters.
Under pressure from airlines to provide a cushion against high fuel costs, Airbus is marketing a new version of its best-selling A320 passenger jet with new engines which it says will save 15 percent in fuel bills starting from late 2015.
Malaysia-based AirAsia has said it is considering buying at least 150 of the "A320neo" aircraft as the region's largest budget carrier expands in the face of high oil prices.
But industry sources told Reuters that the range of negotiations is higher than previously expected and could reach 200 planes, trumping a 180-plane provisional order from India's IndiGo as the industry's largest ever by number of aircraft.
"They are talking about 150 to 200 aircraft," an industry source familiar with the negotiations said, asking not to be named.
Such a deal would be worth US$14 billion to $18 billion at list prices, depending on the exact model of aircraft involved, though big plane orders tend to generate significant discounts.
The record for the largest Airbus deal by value is held by
Emirates airline with a $22 billion purchase in 2007.
EADS subsidiary Airbus declined to comment. A spokesperson for AirAsia said talks were continuing.
Both sides hope to announce the deal at the Paris Air Show on June 20-26 but the size of the deal and its timing remain uncertain because of the sums involved, industry sources said.
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes has set his sights on doubling the size of the nine-year-old airline to rival Southwest Airlines' fleet of more than 500 jets.
The airline has already ordered 175 of the original design of A320, of which 86 have yet to be delivered.
However, in a sign that the Airbus deal should not be taken for granted, Fernandes wrote on Twitter on Friday that he was asked to meet aircraft manufacturer Bombardier in Montreal. The Canadian company wants to challenge Airbus and Boeing with its C Series planes.
Fernandes has regularly broken the secretive protocol of aircraft negotiations by tweeting about the talks.
Boeing is mulling whether to follow Airbus down the "re-engining" route by tinkering with its 737 passenger jet or making more revolutionary changes with an all-new plane offering even bigger fuel savings to cash-tight airlines from 2020.
"The A320neo appears to have good traction with current A320 fliers, particularly low-cost carriers," said Rob Stallard, aviation analyst at RBC Capital Markets, who predicts around 300 orders for the $90-million jetliner by the end of the year.
"Even if Boeing goes ahead with a clean-sheet new narrow-body with entry into service around 2020, we think most Airbus narrow-body customers will stick with the neo due to the high cost of switching providers," he added.
Airline executives say a key factor for Boeing will be whether Airbus manages to convert any of its major traditional clients, especially US-based ones such as Southwest.
The AirAsia order, if confirmed, could also give a much-needed boost to transatlantic consortium CFM International.
Industry sources say the Cincinnati-based company is the front-
runner to win a lucrative contract for the airplanes' engines, breaking a drought of orders after rival Pratt & Whitney scooped up most orders so far for the A320neo.
CFM is a joint venture between General Electric and France's Safran.
Pratt & Whitney has developed an engine called the Geared Turbofan with a change of architecture for the narrow-body 737 and A320 market, the largest slice of the commercial aerospace industry worth $1.7 trillion in plane sales over 20 years.
CFM's new LEAP-X engine depends more on new materials.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
SPAD inherits messy legacy from CVLB: Should we be surprised? — Moaz Yusuf Ahmad
May 29, 2011
MAY 29 — The members of Transit — Malaysia’s public transport forum — were not surprised to hear that the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board was not able to properly manage, regulate and enforce the land-based commercial and public transport industry in Malaysia.
After all, we had heard enough stories of CVLB not having enough enforcement officers; CVLB not being able to act on certain bus companies because these companies were politically connected; CVLB not being able to enforce certain regulations because they did not have the legal authority, etc. Then there are other stories about which well-connected people were able to receive CVLB permits, what they did with those permits, etc.
But we are truly surprised to hear that SPAD representatives, on visiting the CVLB offices in January 2011 (after taking over the responsibility for land public transport in Peninsula Malaysia) discovered that files were strewn on the floor and the information system was totally mismanaged — an apparent and timely justification for the massive re-registration exercise that SPAD is forcing all commercial vehicle operators in Peninsula Malaysia to undergo.
We knew that there were problems within the CVLB. At the same time, we know that when a new organisation comes in and takes over from a previous organisation, sometimes there is a tendency to blame the troubles on the past, and a hope that the public will allow some time for the new organisation to get adjusted.
In the US, they give their incoming presidents “100 Days” to get established. The concept has also been introduced to Malaysia.
But by any measure, SPAD (which started operating in September 2010) is well beyond its first “100 Days” — never mind that most of those days were spent on the MRT project — so why is it that we are only now hearing about the problems that SPAD has inherited?
Transit has to ask some questions and we hope that SPAD will be forthcoming with detailed answers.
How were things at the Department of Railways (another organisation folded into SPAD)? After all, consider that since 2005, there have been many, many service disruptions on KTM, KTM Komuter, LRT and Monorail services. In many cases, passenger safety was definitely at risk as passengers alighted from trains and walked along railway tracks. In other cases, dangerous derailments of KTM trains disrupted rail service. In all cases, it appears that the Department of Railways has apparently not made public the results of any of their investigations (assuming these investigations were even carried out).
Also, can SPAD explain in a few short sentences what the purpose of the re-registration exercise is? It’s not that we do not agree with the re-registration — it is probably quite necessary given the massive restructuring that is needed in the commercial vehicle and land-public transport sectors. But we think that the public and the companies that are involved need to know and understand that by participating in the re-registration exercise, in a timely manner, they are contributing to the establishment of commercial vehicle and public transport sectors that are more organised and more efficient than before.
More organisation and efficiency mean better service at a lower cost. Since everything is transported by a lorry at some point, a more efficient commercial vehicle industry means reduced transportation costs — which will lower the cost of food and commercial products. Similarly, a more organised and efficient public transport service means that transport costs for individual Malaysians can be reduced and services can be expanded — giving the public better access to economic and social activities.
Finally, we are also not quite surprised that some lorry operators and bus operators association leaders are already grumbling about the new expectations that SPAD has — complaining about the increased burden of paperwork and wondering why it is all necessary.
On one hand, we hope that these associations are spending as much time helping the operators that they represent get through the exercise as they are complaining to the media. But on the other hand, we understand why they are complaining — because they simply do not know what to expect for the future.
And that is why we want SPAD to share their vision for commercial and public transport in Malaysia. We are not asking to see their master plans (as it seems that the KL Masterplan is not ready for viewing). We want to know how they plan to invigorate two moribund sectors, which have been on the verge of collapse for decades. In other words, what does SPAD want these sectors to look like when the transformation is finally finished and the “entrepreneurial” days are finally over?
* Moaz Yusuf Ahmad is a member of Transit.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
May 29, 2011
MAY 29 — The members of Transit — Malaysia’s public transport forum — were not surprised to hear that the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board was not able to properly manage, regulate and enforce the land-based commercial and public transport industry in Malaysia.
After all, we had heard enough stories of CVLB not having enough enforcement officers; CVLB not being able to act on certain bus companies because these companies were politically connected; CVLB not being able to enforce certain regulations because they did not have the legal authority, etc. Then there are other stories about which well-connected people were able to receive CVLB permits, what they did with those permits, etc.
But we are truly surprised to hear that SPAD representatives, on visiting the CVLB offices in January 2011 (after taking over the responsibility for land public transport in Peninsula Malaysia) discovered that files were strewn on the floor and the information system was totally mismanaged — an apparent and timely justification for the massive re-registration exercise that SPAD is forcing all commercial vehicle operators in Peninsula Malaysia to undergo.
We knew that there were problems within the CVLB. At the same time, we know that when a new organisation comes in and takes over from a previous organisation, sometimes there is a tendency to blame the troubles on the past, and a hope that the public will allow some time for the new organisation to get adjusted.
In the US, they give their incoming presidents “100 Days” to get established. The concept has also been introduced to Malaysia.
But by any measure, SPAD (which started operating in September 2010) is well beyond its first “100 Days” — never mind that most of those days were spent on the MRT project — so why is it that we are only now hearing about the problems that SPAD has inherited?
Transit has to ask some questions and we hope that SPAD will be forthcoming with detailed answers.
How were things at the Department of Railways (another organisation folded into SPAD)? After all, consider that since 2005, there have been many, many service disruptions on KTM, KTM Komuter, LRT and Monorail services. In many cases, passenger safety was definitely at risk as passengers alighted from trains and walked along railway tracks. In other cases, dangerous derailments of KTM trains disrupted rail service. In all cases, it appears that the Department of Railways has apparently not made public the results of any of their investigations (assuming these investigations were even carried out).
Also, can SPAD explain in a few short sentences what the purpose of the re-registration exercise is? It’s not that we do not agree with the re-registration — it is probably quite necessary given the massive restructuring that is needed in the commercial vehicle and land-public transport sectors. But we think that the public and the companies that are involved need to know and understand that by participating in the re-registration exercise, in a timely manner, they are contributing to the establishment of commercial vehicle and public transport sectors that are more organised and more efficient than before.
More organisation and efficiency mean better service at a lower cost. Since everything is transported by a lorry at some point, a more efficient commercial vehicle industry means reduced transportation costs — which will lower the cost of food and commercial products. Similarly, a more organised and efficient public transport service means that transport costs for individual Malaysians can be reduced and services can be expanded — giving the public better access to economic and social activities.
Finally, we are also not quite surprised that some lorry operators and bus operators association leaders are already grumbling about the new expectations that SPAD has — complaining about the increased burden of paperwork and wondering why it is all necessary.
On one hand, we hope that these associations are spending as much time helping the operators that they represent get through the exercise as they are complaining to the media. But on the other hand, we understand why they are complaining — because they simply do not know what to expect for the future.
And that is why we want SPAD to share their vision for commercial and public transport in Malaysia. We are not asking to see their master plans (as it seems that the KL Masterplan is not ready for viewing). We want to know how they plan to invigorate two moribund sectors, which have been on the verge of collapse for decades. In other words, what does SPAD want these sectors to look like when the transformation is finally finished and the “entrepreneurial” days are finally over?
* Moaz Yusuf Ahmad is a member of Transit.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
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