A. To Ampang with Love...
Haha... speaking of the town where my "Ampang hero" was born. A busy town with a thousand memories.
There was one day when I had be in Ampang for a certain matter. It's so long since I drove, because I've "sold" my car to my brother. Therefore, I have to try to be as street-smart as possible (if at all I am...) by resorting to public transportation.
View along the five-foot-way, near the bus stop in front of Menara MPAJ
The nearest LRT station to places such as Menara MPAJ and Hospital Ampang for instance, is the Cempaka station (Ampang Line, formerly known as STAR LRT).
Up-close with the bus from Cempaka station for play time with dear babe
From Cempaka, there are two RapidKL feeder buses that cover those places, as well as areas around the Selangor part of Ampang. The bus fare is very low at just RM1 per ride, but they may not be very regular during non-peak hours.
However, please be prepared for the buses to be highly-packed during peak hours e.g. at 5.30 pm. I have taken the bus twice in my life, both during my "confinement" period when I found myself missing Alvin so much... it's actually untypical of a new mom to be away from her newborn baby and thus, the untypical decision to go out during the day, without waiting for Alvin's dad to finish work to go to Hospital Ampang.
I used to go by excuses like "I'm running out of milk supply for Alvin, so I need to go there urgently". I defied all confinement rules by carpooling with my brother to the city center (my brother drives my car to work), board the LRT, then the bus to Hospital Ampang. My awaited moments? Play-time with Alvin through the armholes of the incubator! Anyway, those were the days when my kid and I were still away from each other before he's allowed to go home.
Cabs from Cempaka to around Ampang
There are also taxis operating from Cempaka. During peak hours, the cabbies go by the "once full, then start moving" concept. It simply means the cabbie will wait for his cab to be full (4 passengers) before moving. They go by the meter system nonetheless, but I'm not sure how the bill is split. In any event, it's much cheaper than one passenger booking the whole cab.
Bus from Ampang to KL
From my one time experience of waiting for a bus at around 9.30 am near the MPAJ bus stop to KL, I found the waiting period to be very long. I did not sight a single feeder bus which goes to Cempaka. Don't know if it has a connection to being a non-peak hour. But after that one-time experience, I wouldn't recommend anyone to take the bus unless one is able to spare the time to wait. The only bus I finally managed to get was a RapidKL intra-city bus which goes to Bukit Bintang (BB)... way out of my intended destination. The bus took a long route from Ampang to Pandan Jaya, Taman Maluri Cheras, Pudu, and finally to BB.
B. KL Monorail
Just in case if you notice how come all pictures come with portrait layout, that's because I tried to be as discreet as possible when I took those pictures with my phone.
Back to the story, here's the latest looks of the the Imbi monorail station, some time in early April. It's a pleasure to see fans and digital clock fixed around the platform so that passengers can line up in comfort and convenience.
Below is a snapshot of the ongoing renovation work to "add length" to the existing platform. It's high time the monorails be upgraded from just 2 coaches to at least 4, considering the existing size of our monorails that does not tally with the high volume of passengers during peak hours, and also weekends when there are many folks going to places like Times Square, Low Yat, Sg Wang, etc.
Inside the monorail, looks almost like any other ordinary tubes. But if we were to look at the monorail from outside, it surely reminds us of a theme park. It's miniature, very short and compact.
C. The hot route from the "KL Sentral Monorail Station" to KL Sentral
It's hot, indeed.
Contrary to the name "KL Sentral" given to the monorail station, the platforms and station are actually located outside and opposite the transportation hub called KL Sentral. A project is currently in place to build a connecting bridge from KL Sentral to the "KL Sentral Monorail Station".
The bridge project aside, there is a host of construction work presently taking place in front of KL Sentral - shopping mall, office buildings.... and a hotel named Aloft was recently completed and officially-opened.
Due to ongoing construction work nearby, it has become quite a mess to walk from the monorail station to KL Sentral. What used to be a direct and straight route has become a twisted one today.
Looking at the picture below, one can see how dark and perhaps suffocating the lower ground (LG) level of KL Sentral has become today. The LG level which houses the RapidKL bus hub is dark and feels claustrophobic now. From LG, one has to take the escalator or manual stairway up into the KL Sentral complex.
This is what one sees when coming from across the road near Public Bank in Brickfields to KL Sentral...
D. Conclusion
It will be too early to comment on what the situation will be like once the construction projects attain completion.
Fingers-crossed, things should gradually improve so as to create more incentive for the people to take the public transport. A little improvement is better than none, albeit slowly. But shouldn't be too slow either... or else the objectives of having public transport will only be defeated.
In short, our existing public transport does generally bring us to many places that we intend to go, but the coverage is not as comprehensive as what would have been ideal.
Taking the public transport becomes challenging when trips get irregular due to reasons like traffic jam and the negative attitude of some (important note: some, not all) who are entrusted in operating, maintaining and improving the public transport system.
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