COMMENT | Consider better, cheaper, faster options than Penang LRT

COMMENT | The federal government should reconsider its funding for Penang’s overhead light rail transit (LRT) on financial and technical grounds.

After several failed attempts by the Penang state government to fund a bloated “Penang Transport Master Plan” (PTMP), it turned to the federal government to finance the LRT, the first project of the PTMP.

Most ordinary people would fully support the urgent need for Penang to have an efficient and affordable public transport system.

In fact, members of Penang Forum were the ones who suggested this initiative to the state government soon after it won the 2008 state election. Its representatives served pro bono in the Penang Transport Council.

Civil society, however, is strongly opposed to the revised PTMP that the Penang government is pushing, not only because the cost is overblown (in 2015, the project was estimated at RM46 billion and will surely cost more now).