KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — State executive councillor for investment, trade and mobility Ng Sze Han has rejected claims the state’s demand-responsive transit (DRT) service has failed, but acknowledged that a van shortage is hindering efforts to up service frequency.
He said Prasarana Malaysia Bhd is awaiting the arrival of more vans to expand the service.
“I will not agree that DRT is a failure. DRT is a success, and can be a very successful model to tackle the first-mile and last-mile connectivity in Selangor.
“The challenge now is we do not have enough DRT vans on the road. According to Prasarana or Rapid KL, they are waiting for a new batch of the vans to arrive in order for them to deploy.
“We are waiting and we hope Prasarana can receive their vans as quickly as possible,” he said during a townhall at Selangor Mobility Symposium, in conjunction with Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, today.
Ng was responding to a question from an audience member about whether the state government acknowledges DRT’s limitations and failures, and whether the service is being used to compensate for structural weaknesses in the bus network.
The asker, who claimed to have been using DRT since its launch around 2024, cited long waits and lengthy journeys.
Ng said the main challenge is the lack of vehicles to serve existing routes, which has limited service frequency.
He added that data collected from the DRT pilot project in Selangor suggested the model is suitable for the state, but more vans are needed.
Selangor introduced DRT about two years ago as a shared, on-demand transport service to improve first- and last-mile connectivity.
