Early bird users of LRT, monorail and BRT who use cashless payment mode to get discounts

KUALA LUMPUR: Early bird travelers will get to enjoy 50% discount on their LRT, monorail or BRT fare prices effective Sept 16, Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) announced.

Prasarana president and group chief executive office Datuk Azmi Abdul Aziz said the offer would be applicable to all commuters who travel by the cashless payment modes between 6am and 7am on weekdays.

"Commuters travelling on Touch n' Go, MyRapid Card, MyRapid Smart 7, MyRapid Smart 30 and MyRapid Concession Card (senior citizen, students and people with disabilities) would get to enjoy further savings on top of their existing current fares discount provided to them and there would not be any discount for those using the cash payment modes.

"For example, the existing fare price for a journey from KL Sentral to KLCC is RM 2.20 (those using Touch n' Go) as compared to RM2.40 (when using cash) but from Sept 16 onwards, the fare prices would be RM1.10 per journey if you use cashless modes," Azmi explained during a media conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Azmi hoped that the offer would motivate a segment of the morning peak-hour commuters who travel between 7am and 9am to shift their travel pattern to an earlier time as it would help to ease the congestion at the selected stations during the morning peak periods.

"We have sufficient system capacity, overall. However, there is an imbalance passenger load factor during the morning peak period – 52% of ridership (19,000 people) for those travelling between 6am and 7am and it would jump 134% (51,000 people) or 133% (52,000 people) during the peak hours.

"Hence, it is crucial for us to address this challenge to ensure our commuters can reach their destination or workplace on time," said Azmi who anticipated that some 10,000 commuters would change their travel pattern with this win-win initiative.

Elaborating further on the initiative, Azmi said that the discount would take effect upon the commuter 'tapping-in' the ticket product (card) at the station entry gate.

Azmi also revealed that there is a possibility that the offer would be extended to other time of the day but the decision for it would depend on what is the public response towards this latest offer first.