KUALA LUMPUR, 23 July – Daily ridership for the MRT Sungai Buloh – Kajang Line (MRT SBK) has surpassed the 140,000-mark with yesterday’s figures registering a total of 142,313 passengers; spending their Saturday to experience Malaysia’s newest mode of public transportation service.

Expressing his delight, Rapid Rail Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Ir. Zohari Sulaiman hopes that Malaysians especially those living in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor will continue to make public transport as their preference over driving their own vehicles into the city.

“The statistics are actually even more flattering as normally, daily ridership is highest on week-days when people are working. In this case, we have 142,313 on a weekend on Saturday. And, looking at today’s report from my staff on ground, we should be having a very high ridership today as well,” said Zohari.

Launching the second phase of the MRT SBK Line on July 17, Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak announced free rides between Kajang and Muzium Negara for the day; contributing to a ridership of about 100,000 for the day.

The Prime Minister also announced a 50 percent discount on fare when traveling on the MRT and Rapid KL’s other rail services – the Kelana Jaya LRT Line, Ampang LRT Line, Sri Petaling LRT Line and the Monorail service until Merdeka Day on 31 August.

“We recorded a daily ridership of 90,409 on the following date on 18 July; subsequently increasing to 96,887 passengers on July 19. We had 95,009 passengers on July 20; and we broke the 100,000-mark on Friday, 21 July with a daily ridership of 110,782. Yesterday, on Saturday, July 21, the ridership stood at 142,313 happy passengers.

“Naturally, we would like to thank the commuters for their support. We sincerely hope that they would continue to use Rapid Rail public transport network that included the Kelana Jaya LRT Line, Ampang LRT Line, Sri Petaling LRT Line, the Monorail service and the MRT SBK, which is operated by Rapid KL,” Zohari added.

Phase 1 between Sungai Buloh and Semantan was launched by the Prime Minister on 15 December last year; operating on the following day with an average daily ridership of 15,000 passengers.