For immediate Press Release RAPID KL LAUNCHES INTEGRATED SMART CARD TICKETING SYSTEM Kuala Lumpur , 23 rd October 2007 – Finally commuters can enjoy seamless travel on RAPID KL using its new integrated smart card ticketing system. In a press conference today, RAPID KL’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Rein Westra announced that all its buses have been installed with the electronic ticketing system, that has the capacity to read smart cards, namely the MyKad, and Touch n’ Go. They can be programmed to function as either a stored value card or as a Monthly Travel Card. We are very excited as today we finally can offer our customers an integrated smart card ticketing system in the RAPID KL buses and trains,’ says Westra. ‘It has taken us sometime as there are many technical aspects we needed to fine tune to ensure the system works,’ added Westra. With the launch of the smart card system, RAPID KL today also announced a gradual phasing out of its current paper based Monthly Travel Cards. ‘The beauty of these new MTC products is that they can be purchased anytime of the month unlike the paper based MTCs which is only on sale from 24 th to 7 th of each month,’ explained Westra. The new cards offer the same benefits such as unlimited rides and access anytime of the day and time on each of its three different cards namely the Bus MTC, LRT MTC and Integrated Bus & Rail.
MY-RAPID This is the beginning of a new aspect to our brand: My-Rapid is a concept that will be developed in the future to include a person ali zed menu of information services with messages that can be sent to your PC or hand phone regarding the weather, to remind you of the need to renew your MTC, special events, new shops in our stations, detours and other service changes that may occur.’ says Westra. Customers are therefore asked to fill up a form with each purchase of the smart cards. On expiry of the smart card based MTC’s, customers can reload the card at the LRT stations at their convenience. When you are using the daily bus tickets, the machine will be able to read the type of bus you enter namely the ‘Utama’, ‘Tempatan’ and ‘Bandar’ buses and compute the maximum price of RM4 automatically instead of RM5 if one is taking all three types of buses separately on a paper based mode. Hence, users of the smart cards don’t have to ‘decide up-front’ if they need to purchase the daily ‘Sepadu’ or ‘Semua’ tickets, but the ticketing system ensures users do not pay more than those tickets depending on the type of bus they used. Westra also announced that the Kelana Jaya Line will increase its fleet from 30 to 32 by November with the completion of major repairs to two trains which were badly damaged during last year’s flash flood in Sri Rampai Station. He added that these two trains will further improve the capacity and increase the frequency of service along the system. Using the smart card system, there is no daily cash transaction needed and no queuing to purchase tickets every day. We have thereby made the Rapid KL public transport system a fully integrated seamless travel experience to our customers.’ Westra elaborated. END.
This press release is issued by Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd. |