ISSUES AT TERMINAL

Bus terminal is an essential component of urban transport facilities which defines the beginning (origin) or end (terminating) of the line for the transportation system. Terminal also facilitate or act as an interchange before, during or after the road haul movement including servicing facilities for vehicle. It normally requires a sizeable land in a strategic part of an urban area. The sites for bus terminal are commonly located in the city centre, outside the city centre or at the fringe of the city centre. Wherever the sites may be located, the terminal should serve or provide its basic function, which rendered safety and convenient to the traveling public while waiting, alighting or boarding the bus. A well planned and managed bus terminal will act as catalyst to the social and economic development of the surrounding areas. Moving the terminal to the fringe of the central business district but easily accessible may help in reducing the current problems of traffic congestion and other related road traffic problems in city centre. As such this paper would deliberate on the concept of a far side terminating bus terminal model as an alternative to the present approach in Kuala Lumpur city.

ISSUES AT TERMINAL

Most bus terminals in the country may be considered as ‘central terminating’, and have common problems such as accessibility and circulation of the buses. Space wise bus terminal
normally require bigger/larger space for buses in-waiting, thus this is another problem faced by operators where such facilities seldom can be accommodated by the municipal or local authorities. Limitation in space for bus terminal in city centre may affects on the quality of other services rendered to the customers or bus users. Problems related to bus terminal may be summarized and listed among others as follows;

a. Operators

i) High rate of renting
This is due to the existing terminal in the city centre and at central business district area will make the land owner or an authorities impose high rate of renting for the operators.
ii)Unauthorized sell of tickets
Most of the problem related to bus campus terminal was there are certain an unauthorized sell
of tickets which normally appear during festive season because increasing number of
passengers during this time, therefore due to demand for bus tickets during this festive season
is always higher it will creates a fraud seller of tickets which operates illegally.
iii)Vehicle circulation and parking problems
There are too many buses and vehicles enter the bus terminal and the bus terminal only
provide a small space and will creates a parking problems for the vehicles which park their
vehicle at the bus terminal to pick or drop passengers.
iv)Lack of facilities for staff
This is refers to facilities which must be provided by the operators for their staff, such as
office and control room, storage of personal belongings, rest room, toilets and so on.

b. Users/ Customers

i)Waiting area
In Terms of waiting area, mostly it is not strategic because the plan at bus terminal are not
properly well managed and not suitable for the users and customers.
ii)Safety while waiting, alighting and boarding buses
Safety aspect one of the main problem at bus terminal especially for women and infant
especially from the crime which usually happened such as theft and so on.
iii)Information on trips and services well not managed
Basically, bus terminal should provide and serve a good signage, brochure and good customer service in sufficient way but the problem at bus terminal Klang Valley was the information on trips and service are not well managed.
iv)Public facility such as toilets, telephone are in adequate or not maintained
As mentioned earlier under staffs facilities, basically public facilities are inadequate to serve
for users.


c. Authorities

i)Traffic congestion and pollution
The worst problem at the bus terminal Klang Valley was the problem of traffic congestion and pollution which make the surrounding are become poor. In order word, traffic congestion
created due to the high number of vehicles enter the bus terminal and the number of parking
spaces are quite limited.
ii)Cleanliness of the surrounding
The surrounding are at bus terminal is badly managed.



PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMINAL
Development of terminal normally will follow suit with the development of the surrounding area, such as construction of administrative and/or commercial buildings, other related projects which are needed to coordinates transportation network system of the region. Thus, the surrounding areas of the terminal will be a focus activities area which create and generates jobs opportunities. As terminal may require large space area, consideration of reserved land should be considered for future expansion during the planning stage. Hence, site location outside city centre is an ideal choice as price of land is relatively low.

The social-economy impact of new far side terminating terminal to the surrounding areas, as can be expected are job opportunities directly or indirectly at the terminal complex. At the same time a well-planned and sited location will make mobility efficient and accessibility to all other destination easy and convenient. The physical planning and development of far side terminating terminal should consider the following guidelines;

a. Terminal size and space for operators:

Preferably terminal should be constructed as a complex complete with facilities such as bus bays for alighting and boarding of passengers safely. Sufficient space for buses parking and strategic circulation route in and out of the terminal. Although terminal is located at the fringe of the city centre, its location should be ‘close’ to the expressway and easily accessible facilities for staffs should be provided adequately, such as rest room, store for storage of personal belongings, office and control room, paying-in room, preying room (surau), toilets etc.

b. Facilities for passengers convenient

With complex type of terminal, passengers are well sheltered and housed. Convenient waiting room and other supporting facilities such as public telephones, storage of luggage, toilets, surau, stalls and handicap facilities. Computerized information system and a good public announcement system on bus schedule. Counter for sale of tickets should be well position/placed and enquiry and complaints counter should be made available for those who need help.

c. Engineering aspects

As from the engineering aspects of the layout and design of intercity bus terminals vary a great deal in size and complexity depending on the number of passengers to be accommodated and whether the facilities are to serve one or more carriers. Generally, a typical layout of bus terminal would features common waiting area, restaurant and toilets, but has separate ticketing, passenger loading and baggage handling areas. However, the deliberation on the engineering aspects would focus among others are the ingress and egress routes, guide ways, parking and berth provision. As to avoid traffic congestion and reduce movement conflicts between buses and other modes into the terminal areas, it is preferably that the ingress and egress be located away from street intersection. Dedicated single entrance and exit with multiple lanes for ingress and egress bus routes to the parking bays be provided solely for the use of buses. This approach would ensure efficient movement of buses and better safety, as other modes of transport such as personal vehicle and taxis for loading and pick-up are located at designated areas within the terminal compound. Guide way for buses and passengers should be designed accordingly to standard and provided adequately to serve its main purpose for safety.

Angle parking is commonly provided for buses and a typical designed of 45° parking and berth size for a 40ft x 8.5ft. The spatial requirements would depend primarily on the size, physical features and operating characteristics of the bus and the angle of parking. A protective canopy overhang should be provided and should at least extend beyond the loading
door of parked buses to protect passengers when its rain.

Other facilities that need to be incorporated are suitable provision for package express handling, temporary storage, pickup and drop-off. Facilities for the physically handicapped such as reserved parking spaces for this category of users, entrances usable by persons in wheelchairs, ramps with handrails at least on one side need to be provided.