STAR, 18 November 2011
GEORGE TOWN: After 10 years of losses, Konsortium Transnasional Bhd (KTB) is also throwing in the towel in the mainland.
KTB gave the state government a 10-day notice that its Cityliner buses would cease to operate from Nov 21.
“Among the reason given was that most of the routes are not profitable because of competition from other operators,” said Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow yesterday.
“The company is also expecting to post a loss of RM4mil from its mainland operations alone,” he said.
Chow said KTB had proposed that it be appointed a sub-contractor to Rapid Penang and be paid a fixed per kilometre sum in exchange for all collected fares which would be forwarded to Rapid Penang.
“The KTB management also proposed that the state government take over the routes and contract it back to them, also on a fixed per kilometre sum.”
In ALOR SETAR, state Environment, Chinese Community Affairs and Transport Committee chairman Tan Joo Long @ Tan Chow Kang said he had received a letter from a bus company stating its intention to cease operations.
“I am in the midst of the state assembly sitting and have yet to study the contents of the letter. I will only issue a statement next week after finding out more,” he said.
In IPOH, the Perak Government plans to extend its subsidies to more bus operators in various districts to avoid any disruption to bus services.
State executive councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said the state government would be holding dialogues with bus operators in Kerian, Larut Matang and Selama, and Kuala Kangsar to find out how it could help the operators.
“I understand that the public transportation industry is running at a loss daily.
“It is a long-standing problem faced by the operators and we are trying our best to help them,” Dr Mah told The Star yesterday.
The state government, he revealed, was currently subsidising about RM72,000 monthly to maintain bus operations in Manjung.
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