Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd, the operator of the Rapid KL bus services, will be running a trial service on its minibuses for Route T300 that operates from Bukit Indah hub to Ampang Point, via Jalan Rasmi.
The trial service will utilise three minibuses starting from 1st of September until 29th November 2019.
According to its chief executive officer Muhammad Yazurin Sallij, the upcoming trial will enable the company to test the suitability of running the minibuses in neighbourhoods with narrow roads and it gives better insight into the commuters' journey experience via the feedback received.
"We believe with shorter buses, we can increase the frequency and serve our passengers better as it will have faster turnaround time," said Muhammad Yazurin in a statement.
He mentioned that normal-sized buses have space limitation due to haphazard parking by private vehicle owners that resulted in longer bus trips and delays.
"If there is encouraging demand during the trial, we will consider retaining the service for this route and possibly extend similar service to other potential routes. This is part of our continuous effort to provide efficient public transport services to the people," he said.
Muhammad Yazurin explained that the minibuses are actually the shorter eight-meter buses, which are mini in size as compared to the 10-meter and 12-meter brethren.
" Rapid Bus is not repurposing the pink minibuses that were a ubiquitous fixture on the roads of Kuala Lumpur about twenty years ago," said Muhammad Yazurin.
The minibuses can carry about 31 passengers per bus and will run on a frequency of 15 minutes during peak hours, as well as 25 minutes during non-peak hours, from 5:30am to 11:40pm.
"Technically, these are 'midi' buses. For the trial period, we are using the eight-meter, fully air-conditioned 27-seater buses. Some routes have narrow roads or low demand, or the distance is too short, so we need to adjust and modify the kind of vehicles that we use so that we could effectively serve our passengers," Muhammad Yazurin said.
Similar to all Rapid KL buses, the minibuses will use the cashless system that accepts only Touch N'Go travel cards and the My100 and My50 subscription packages.
