RapidPenang initially considered reducing the number of buses for some routes and ending some routes entirely due to the financial burden as the ridership for some routes were too low to cover costs. Some routes even had as few as one or two riders per trip, which was unsustainable and not economical.

However, after discussions with Prasarana and after the state government’s appeal, the company has decided not to go ahead with the proposal to stop the bus routes. All buses will ply all routes as usual.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow commented that “the ridership trend is still dropping but we hope with the launch of the rest of the CAT feeder buses routes, it may increase ridership. There is a need to encourage the public to take public transportation and cutting out routes would definitely not help. Many people without their own transportation rely on public buses so we looked into this issue seriously and appealed to RapidPenang to reconsider such proposals.”

The state government will launch the remaining eight CAT feeder routes by the end of July 2018. The feeder buses are free public transportation (commissioned by the state government) that go in loops around each area. Response for the Air Itam route seems most promising with an average of 6000 to 7000 riders daily. Other routes such as BalikPulau recorded an average of about 200 passengers a day, Bukit Mertajam 300 passengers a day while NibongTebal had an average ridership of 150 passengers a day.