and getting my adrenaline rushing.
I drove Nee's car to Saujana Hotel and was a bit too early, despite having a quick bite in Gopeng and enjoyed a BK Whopper at Sungai Buloh rest area. At 4 pm, she and foreign colleagues just got out of KLIA (her Malaysian passport was a breeze at immigration but not the foreigners') and it took them half an hour by hotel taxi. She was supposed to send me to the nearest LRT station for me to try and catch the 6.05pm train from KL Sentral back to BG. If I missed this, I would have to take the next one, three hours later and reach past midnight. There were trains in between, not stopping in BG but Ipoh which would require a bus or taxi ride back. It was a last minute decision at 5 pm when I decided to take the executive taxi from Saujana instead so that she could look after her foreign guests. The taxi meter starts at Rm6 and the short trip to Kelana Jaya station costed Rm19.80! Anyway, it was my first time taking a train from KJ so it was a frantic rush using the pedestrian crossing and looking out for signs to buy ticket and board the train. Here, being the end/start of Putra Line, any train at either platform can be taken. It was already 5.25 pm and the only advantage is no traffic jam.
By the time I reached KL Sentral, I had only 15 minutes to buy ticket and board the train leaving at 6.05 pm. It was certainly helpful to have been here before, yet because of poor memory, I had to read signs to get to the ticketing place for KTM Intercity. The need to get a queue number first meant delay when the person in front was asking for information. Despite having been here before and taken train to this station, I still made a mistake of going to KTM Komuter (a floor below) to ask for direction to board Intercity train which was on same floor as the ticketing office. I would blame it on poor signposting which failed my 'dummy test' which requires a first time user to be able to find his way. My suggestion would be unambiguous signs eg. KTM Intercity Ticketing and KTM Intercity Boarding or Platforms, instead of just KTM Intercity for both sections. Unless the person has prior knowledge, he is likely to confuse KTM Intercity with KTM Komuter as well, as though they are the same. Perhaps, an extra sign with direction arrow for Intercity at Komuter entrance and a similar sign for Komuter at Intercity entrance would help the occasional dummy like me.
As a comparison with the executive taxi fare, the train fare from KL to BG for a senior citizen is only Rm15 for a second class seat. The toll from Gopeng to Subang is Rm23.50 and you need to fill in petrol and pay for wear and tear of the car. Government should emphasize on building public transport systems for the benefit of the people.
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