Getting around KL Sentral

Dear Kuala Lumpur,

You've been making headlines a lot recently, with the government trying to attract more foreign tourists for Malaysia's golden jubilee in 2007.

I'm just wondering if you're ready for this glamorous role that they're promoting. You're a bit hard to get around, dear KL.

Example. Foreign tourists often like to use public transport. Your main station is KL Sentral. One of the main tourist and shopping areas is Bukit Bintang. Linking the two is the KL Monorail. How does a foreigner like me arriving on the KLIA airport express train get to Bukit Bintang? First, I try to find a map of where I am.

Ah, there a map posted right beside the spot where many foreigners fist enter KL! Great service. It even reads "Integrated Transit System" on the map, wow just like Germany, or Singapore. But wait a minute. Those station names along the blue Monorail line are nothing like those in my 2006-edition guidebook. ...could it be they have an old transport map hanging right at the place where foreigners get off the KLIA express? Oh dear.

At least it mentions Bukit Bintang station. I'll go there then.

The next challenge to to find the Monorail. There are no signs pointing anywhere. Somebody tells me I should go down this narrow hall with a McDonald's and an airline office to get to the main hall.

They have managed to make this impressive building look more like a down-market shopping mall rather the nation's premier public transport hub. Instead of the grand open space crossed by suspended railway lines that it could have been, it's now compartmentalised into small halls with lots of obstacles, crowds and short view lines.


In the main hall I look for signs pointing to the Monorail entrance. None! All I see is this sign, which mentions various trains (don't they have one name for all the metro trains in this city?), but no Monorail.

My guidebook mentions that the names Putra and Star line are no longer used - but here they are on a huge sign right in the middle of KL Sentral station. You can't be serious that they forgot to change the signs?

When I ask a kind soul for the Monorail, he points me towards the side entrance of the station and tells me it's across the street. So much for integrated public transport.






I find the exit and follow a narrow staircase down to what looks like a bus station. Plenty of signs and banners for the buses but still no signs for the Monorail - I don't see it across the street. I ask again and get pointed towards a covered market.
It stinks here - why do they leave their engines running while they're parked? Elsewhere bus and even car drivers are getting fined for that wasteful behaviour.
Damn, these bus drivers are assholes, nearly hit me.


Now this beats everything. Switching between two important modes of transport on KL's integrated public transport involves getting lost in a mall, straggling down a steep staircase and across a bus station... and now they want me to walk through a covered market which is at least 35-40 degrees in the sun, and is completely flooded when it rains!
And then I have to cross yet another busy road which is also flooded where the green light stays on for only 5 seconds and where taxis park on the zebra path.

Shame on you, KL, for treating your guests like this. In Germany, or Singapore, this would result in riots and fired officials.

Well, KL, seems to me that all this is down to stupidity. Do the people organising your public transport ever use it?

You can't move the Monorail station now it's been built (though I hope they fired the person who left it hanging in mid-air 400m from the real station building), but at least you can make life easier for us foreign travellers with some signs and a proper walkway between the stations.

Terse regards,
Jeff

Dear Kuala Lumpur

Dear Kuala Lumpur,

... can I call you KL? My name's Jeff and I'm a temporary resident of Kuala Lumpur. I like it here a lot - I have little reason to complain. Compared to my home country, the weather is great, the food is varied and cheap, it's an excellent base for trips in the region and the people are quite friendly.

But after a while I started noticing all the little things that could be done so much better if only someone would sit down and think a little. The nearest other large city is Singapore - and although a comparison with you is unfair is some ways, I would argue that there is absolutely no reason that you couldn't be as well-planned and pleasant to live in as Singapore. Malaysia has the money, the intelligent people and the international contacts to improve its own situation.

But people don't seem to be willing to take care of you. Why not? That's not up to me to discuss. But what I can do as an international who has lived in a variety of developed and developing countries is point out what can easily be changed to make you and Malaysia a better place for locals, foreign residents and visitors. Especially if you wish to attract more foreign tourists, certain small and simple improvements would be very useful indeed.

The posts in this blog are therefore to be seen as helpful free advice rather than ugly criticism - and I hope Malaysians can use these insights to help change the state you're in , dear KL, as well as their own circumstances.

Talk soon, Jeff.