KL's city rail...

Choo, Choo... Chug, Chug, Chug..


Ah, talking about the grouses of public transport. Let's go through the rail system.

Ok, first and foremost, Putra has not enough carriages! During the peak hours, we can see people pressing on the glasses windows on the doors, hanging on to others (or not holding anything at all)... it looks like they've all been swept into the train with a mighty whack from a mighty broom. This is especially bad after the train had passed the KLCC station. We need more carriages, something like the number STAR has. Talking about STAR, most of the time the drivers mumble through their mics for the station alert. With all the noise from the train, how do they expect us to hear them? To make things more difficult, we can't see the name of the station clearly at night because the inside of the train is brighter than the outside. One more irritating thing, sometimes or often, the air conditioning doesn't work! And it happens during peak hours (I get it in the afternoon) when everyone is pressing against each other, coming back from work, sweating and smelling and breathing heavily in the moving gas chamber-like prison. The management should check their trains everyday. Why should we pay and support the service when we are taken for granted?

Ok, not all problems arise from the management, mind you. I like the service because of the timing of the LRT trains. It's of course not as frequent all the time as one would like, but it's fine. Most importantly, it arrives on time. This is what the public should be ashamed about. The stations frequently announce that people must let others disembark first before boarding. Easier said than done. Doors open and the hullabaloo starts. Shoving, grumbling, grunting, you name it. It's like that's the only train on the track for miles and we can't miss it. People on the train, don't smirk yet. You guys take your time coming out of the train. Perhaps you own the train, do you? How can people get on the train if you don't come out? Putra is automatic, it doesn't wait and I don't think STAR's drivers would like to be delayed too long. Whose fault is it when people get hurt? Everybody's.

KTM Commuter, for goodness sake, clean up! Cockroaches live in the carriages! What on earth.... sigh... I rest my case. Also, be punctual! How do you explain the 45 minute waiting time for a train from Subang Jaya to KL Sentral? Worry about the costs? Don't. There are more people taking the trains than you think. Keep us happy, and we'll keep you happy. It's 2 way.

Ah, this is the unsolved mystery of KL:
WHY ON EARTH DOES THE MONORAIL STOP SHORT OF GOING INTO KL SENTRAL???

Chimneys

Cough, cough...
picture source: http://www.engineering.usu.edu/databases/mdb/images/no_smoking234.gif

It's really intriguing. Even with the much publicised risks of lung cancer, hordes of chimneys still churn out clouds of smoke. It's like the early days of industrialisation when everyone's using coal. Who suffers? The non-smokers!

Interestingly, many parents hate children who smoke but one can see some parents, especially fathers, puffing away in their car while the whole family had to endure him with the windows down! These people should probably take note that cars come with air-conditioning. This new technology helps us survive the pollution when we're on the road. But what are they doing? The poor children breathe in burnt petrol as well as burnt tobacco. Why are people getting mad at children who smoke? They really shouldn't. They should be proud that their offspring had mastered the family tradition and are ready to sustain it.

Everytime I eat at a coffee shop or a mamak shop, I have to endure the smoke around me. Aren't eateries supposed to be a non-smoking place? It IS an enclosed place, and enclosed places are barred to smokers. So, this smoking species say, "Go to a non-smoking place la if you don't like it here.". Heck, this type of human rights is invalid. If I retort, "Why don't you go to a smoking place if you like to smoke.", I think I'll be bashed up by all the chimneys around me. Smokers complain that they are denied their human rights. How about nons? This is an age old debate. In reality, smokers have already forfeited their rights. They are harming healthy people around them. Are they much different than bombers? Virus releasers? They'are killing innocent victims. They kill children. They kill their own children. They fight for their right to kill. And when they kill, they experience pleasure from nicotine. It's sick: pleasure when killing. Christopher Reeve's dear wife died of lung cancer. She hasn't smoked once in her life. Who killed her?

Smokers violate personal space by intruding on the 1.5 foot radius of airspace of each individual around him. What do countries do when they found a sparrow from their neighbour flying into their land in this time of the avian flu threat? Exaggeratingly, The sparrow would be hit by a missile. Same here, why can't we defend our health? Because we would be charged for causing grevious hurt. However, the smoker wouldn't be charged the same, would he? We always want evidence. They always laugh, "You don't have cancer, how you know we caused it?". If only we have and accept precogs. Minority Report wasn't a bad show after all.

People, not chimneys, we have to stand up and defend ourselves. We are at war. And we WILL win the war.