Thursday, September 4, 2008

NO BUS SERVICE FROM MELAKA TO KLIA


5th. September 2008

A traveller from Penang wrote to the newspapers complaining that there are no direct bus services from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We wonder why. There are buses travelling from Melaka Sentral to Kuala Lumpur but not one makes a detour to KLIA/LCCT at Sepang. This problem can be easily solved by having some bus services to call on KLIA/LCCT while enroute to Kuala Lumpur.

Also, some bus services while travelling from KL to Melaka can call on KLIA/LCCT as well.

We want to make Melaka, now a World Heritage City to be accessible to all visitors - locals and foreign travellers. A direct bus link will be good for the industry. We hope some bus companies will see this as a business opportunity not to be missed.

Below is the letter written to some national newspapers.

"While there are frequent services to Kuala Lumpur, other Klang Valley locations and Seremban, it appears to be quite inconvenient, especially for first-time visitors to Malaysia, to have to haul their entire luggage from bus to bus in order to reach Malacca.

This is exacerbated by the decentralisation of interstate bus services, most notably in Kuala Lumpur.

Further problems arise when one has to catch a flight from Malacca: having to change buses means that around twice the time of a direct journey, if not more, needs to be allocated in order not to miss one’s plane.

Interestingly, there are direct, albeit less frequent, bus services to Ipoh – a good 100km further away from KLIA compared to Malacca!

It would seem that only those who can afford a taxi or better can enjoy a direct ride to Malacca from the airport.

Given the promotion of Malacca as a premier tourist destination, it reflects poorly on this country that not enough seems to be done to facilitate the journey of both locals and foreigners to the recently-listed Unesco World Heritage Site.

The constant flow of tourists, not to mention locals, second-home owners and university students, should provide enough demand for a reasonably frequent direct bus service from Melaka Sentral to either KLIA, LCCT or both."

NEOH JOON KEE,
Penang.

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