The reason – the RapidKL feeder bus number T405 that serves his area is frequently tardy, causing him to be late for work.
On October 21, the 75-year-old caught one of his last rides to work at 7.30am. He had been standing at the bus stop since 5.35am, recounted the former mountaineer who is particular about keeping an accurate watch.
“Everything I do follows bus time, not the time of my family members,” widow G. Kanthimathi, told The Malaysian Insider.
She related that it was usual to have to wait an hour for the T405 to arrive. And that is during the peak office hours. During non-peak hours, the frequency in-between buses rise to a two-hour average.
Madam Lam, a former Pudu market worker, said when she asked the bus driver why they were always running late, she was rudely told: “If you can’t wait, then just take the taxi.”
But using a taxi costs significantly more.
A ride from one housing estate to another cost about RM10, and similarly from an estate to the neighbourhood Leisure Mall, a shopping centre in Taman Segar. A one-way taxi ride to the city is double to triple that price.
Like Kanthimathi, Lam said she would rather walk the 2km to the highway and board the buses that run more frequently along the route despite the safety hazards.
The walk to the main entrance of the housing estates can be dangerous as pedestrians will have to battle passing vehicles on the road.
A senior citizen was fatally run over in one of the many blind spots there.
Thirty years ago, there was only Taman Koperasi Cuepacs, adjacent to the Federal Reserve Unit Camp.
Over the years, the population swelled and the neighbourhood expanded to form 20 other housing estates with names like Alam Jaya, Mudun, Masria, Ferngrove, Awana, Venice Hill, Permata and so on.
The area, located just off the Grand Saga Highway, is just 2km away from the proposed Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station along the 51-km Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line connecting the ever expanding Klang Valley.
The Taman Cuepacs MRT station is intended to serve an estimated 30,000 people who live in the neighbourhood named for the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services.
Rather than an expensive rail service that will take years to build, the residents of the Greater Cuepacs area want the bus service improved. For the young and the working class, mobility remains a premium.
Residents claim that though the residential parks were equidistant from the national capital and Kajang town, only those with private vehicles benefit from the strategic location.
The residents say they can hear the sound of traffic but are stuck as they cannot access it.
The problem is compounded by the bus service operating in a loop system.
Residents say they have grown accustomed to the sight of commuters waiting for the T405 at the Jalan Cheras bus stop near Leisure Mall, or at the new Bandar Tasik Selatan bus terminal — which is also linked to the rail services — to head into the city.
The residents lament the deterioration of the bus service.
They said 25 years ago, there used to be three bus lines serving Taman Cuepacs, which has now expanded to eight times its population in the 1980s.
These services were halted as a single service under City-Liner and then RapidKL, following the contract being awarded to government-owned transport firm Prasarana Sdn Bhd.
The frustration over the bus service has prompted the establishment of a grassroots volunteer group that calls itself the Cuepacs Cheras Community Centre (4C).
Teenager Wai Yen Chan and his friends who completed the SPM examinations last year have been canvassing their neighbours to sign a petition and believe the poor bus system has impacted employment.
Wai said he and his friends have been constrained by the job opportunities available due to the exorbitant transport cost.
He added that they have limited choice — having to decide between paying for costly cab rides into the city, or accept very low paying jobs in the depressed job scene within the Greater Cuepacs area and competing with foreign unskilled manual labour.
Housewife Madam Saroja, who is married to a retired civil servant and backs the petition, believes the community’s vocal demonstrations at the neighbourhood bus stop will work, with the politicians gearing up for national polls.
“Election is coming, we will show the power,” Saroja said.
Young or old, the issue of poor bus service extends to more than just one corner of the Klang Valley.
The story of Greater Cuepacs is probably the tale of many other parts of Klang Valley still unwritten, and will remain unwritten — since everyone is at a bus stop, waiting.
