Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cityliner calls it quits after 10 years of losses



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.

KTB: We cannot subsidise Negri services any more

STAR, 18 November 2011

SEREMBAN: Konsortium Transna­sional Bhd (KTB), the country’s largest bus operator, stopped its stage bus services in Negri Sembilan as its express bus operations could no longer subsidise them.

KTB executive director Tengku Hasmadi Tengku Hashim said the consortium, which owns 1,500 buses, had over the years been providing “social service” subsidised by its profitable express bus operations.

“But the Government’s move to issue express bus permits to many new players covering lucrative routes, particularly over the past five years, affected our revenue from express bus operations.

“Our group has been registering continued losses because our express bus operations were not making enough to subsidise our stage bus business.”
No more business as usual: A handful of people walking around the Terminal 1 bus station yesterday. KTB stopped its stage bus service in Negri Sembilan on Wednesday. — UU BAN / The Star
 
“Since the new operators are not obliged to provide stage bus services, they have not been badly affected like us,” he told The Star.

KTB has stopped servicing all but a few of its routes in the state, including the Seremban-Kuala Pilah-Bahau, Seremban-Port Dickson and Seremban-Kuala Lumpur expressways.

Tengku Hasmadi, who met Land Public Transport Commission officers yesterday, said he had written to the Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan governments early this year on the company’s predicament.

“We told them that we cannot continue with the stage bus service any more as our operating expenditure had increased significantly while the fares are controlled by the Government,” he said.

Two million TNB consumers to pay 1% levy from Dec 1

STAR, 22 November 2011

PUTRAJAYA: An estimated two million (25%) of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) consumers in Peninsular Malaysia will pay a levy of 1% out of their total electricity bills starting Dec 1.

This will follow the launch of the Government's Feed-in Tariff (FiT) system for the development of renewable energy next month.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin said Tuesday that electricity consumers will contribute 1% of their total electricity tariff bills issued by TNB to the Renewable Energy Fund if they use more than 300kWh of electricity per month.

"Nonetheless, 75% of TNB's customers who consume less than 300kWh per month will be exempted from contributing to this fund," Chin told a press conference here.

The FiT system is a funding mechanism under the Renewable Energy Act (REA) 2011 and Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Act 2011 designed to encourage the development of renewable energy via cost-sharing among electricity consumers.

It was originally set to be launched in September but was postponed to wait for legal mechanisms under the REA to be in place.