Letters - Connectivity counts

"THE MRT should be allowed to shine" (Letters, Jan 12) refers. I thank the writer in furthering the discussion on public transport.
I congratulate him for having made the switch to lower the number of cars in the Klang Valley – a decision I myself made three years ago.
I agree that a car would have intrinsic costs but the low-income groups do not own cars. Thus, perhaps we should consider a proper comparison to a simple motorcycle instead – which is admittedly cheaper than the car and the MRT.
I did write on the MRT being used to cater for middle- to higher-income groups in terms of direct access. Perhaps this was lost in translation.
I'll give an example. Mutiara Damansara station is within walking distance of Malaysians who are better off than those in Kampung Sg Penchala or even Flora Damansara.
This means that while the richer Malaysians can walk and cut out such a cost to get to the stations, the lower-income groups do not have such a choice.
It is self-evident that the MRT stations on the current line are within walking distance of better off groups, while lower-income groups will have access via feeder buses, which cost an additional RM1 a trip.
Next, I did not wish to bring up the issue of government debt on this project for the simple fact that I support the MRT.
However, I do have issues with connectivity.
A morning trip on the MRT with a bus ride to KL Sentral would take 40 minutes – time that could be reduced had they waited and opened the line up to Muzium Negara station, which would link to the transport hub and allow a proper gauge for those working in our nation's capital to test interconnectivity to all other networks.
I also thank the writer for reiterating my final point in the column (On The Other Hand ...).
It is definitely too early to gauge the MRT project and public transport interconnectivity in the Greater Klang Valley, not just until the three MRT lines are ready, but also the LRT Line 3 which will bring those in Klang and Shah Alam into the network by 2020.
As for pressuring MRT staff to be efficient and professional, I would think that would have been a harsher attack since their service is commendable and at peak efficiency.
Hafidz Baharom