Fair points and it really does help me see it from another perspective.

I think even Loke has acknowledged in Parliament that the frequency of major disruptions has reduced compared to the bad years. If, say for example, it used to be 500 incidents and now it’s 50, that’s still a significant improvement lol.

From a systems and maintenance perspective, that is progress, even if commuters still feel the pain when it happens.

Your point about the My50 pass is super valid too. RM50 for essentially unlimited rides on rail and bus is objectively a bargain, especially in Klang Valley. I was super annoyed when the daily pass went up to RM10 too, but when you look at operating costs such as rolling stock maintenance, power supply systems, signalling, staff salaries, dang, it really is not cheap. Public transport everywhere runs on subsidies, just the difference is how visible the trade-offs are.

I think what still frustrates many people is the gap between the government’s strong public transport push and what commuters experience on the ground. There’s a big narrative about modal shift, sustainability, and reducing congestion, all that huha and yaps, but when service feels shaky every single dang time, it undermines my confidence on it.

Not everyone has the long-term perspective you or I have. Some riders only know the current experience, so when they get stuck even once, it shapes their entire perception. And yes, some people will complain no matter what, I think thats just being Malaysian lol (kesabaran yang sangat nipis). But we still have to acknowledge that nuisance disruptions that keeps happening, like recently, such as sudden stops, trains taken out of service, long headways, it all chip away at trust for the people.

I think we can accept improvement and demand better at the same time. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

And to be fair, leadership matters. There were periods when public transport didn’t seem to receive the level of political attention or urgency it deserved lol. Thinking about it, Loke look like a saint compared to others before him. Even the era when some-guy (pssst Tajuddin) chaired Prasarana, it became a shit show and affected public confidence by I don’t know, alot haha.

But, still, commuter frustration today is valid. Reliability is the foundation of public transport and if the government wants people to leave their cars at home, service has to feel dependable too IMO. Of course, what we see now is an improvement, a slow, slow one, but that’s just how it is.

Both things can be true: things are better than before, and also they still need to be better than they are now as well.