KUALA LUMPUR: Passengers of KTM Komuter trains serving the Klang Valley will not have to wait for long during peak hours as trains will now arrive every 15 minutes.
The 17-year-old intercity commuters managed to run on 15-minute intervals for the first time on Monday, during peak hours between 5.30am to 9.30am and 4pm to 8pm.
During an event at Depot Centre in Sentul yesterday to mark this success, Komuter Services General Manager Mohd Hider Yusoff said they were delighted to have met their target.
"The most important thing is to ensure our trains reach their destinations on times," Mohd Hider said.
In order to do this, the KTM Komuter fleet, which on average used to run 25 trains at any given time, has now been increased to at least 30 trains Nine out of the 30 trains are the new unit of MyKomuter trains, which has double the capacity of the old Komuter trains.
And with that, Mohd Hider is expecting the passenger traffic to increase by 25 per cent by the end of 2012.
"It's all about winning back people's confidence," Mohd Hider said.
"Currently we are serving 90,000 passengers. We are aiming at somewhere around 120,000 passengers," he said.
He, however, admitted that the transformation in KTM had to start from housekeeping before it translated to results on track.
"We started with housekeeping. In fact, a lot of the management level individuals are now based here (at the depot) where we work closely with the technicians on ground. We came here, got this place cleaned it up, and that motivated them to work," Mohd Hider said.
KTMB general manager for operations Sarbini Tajin said while the old trains had three coaches, the new ones have six coaches and can serve 1,100 people at a time.
He said that 38 sets of the new train have been purchased and will be introduced by year-end.
Tan Boh Ping a technician who had served the company for 26 years said the new working environment is more conducive.
"The new housekeeping changes has made things easy as we now feel less pressured," Tan said.
On Monday, KTM's Komuter fleet managed to send out 34 trains operating throughout the day, all right on time and punctual.
With the higher management setting an incentive of RM15,000 a month for technicians should they manage to keep a minimum of 30 trains operating a day, more results could be expected on track.