Wake up, Anthony Loke, where are your reforms?




As voters and rakyat, we must ask a critical question of our Ministry of Transport: Three years into Anthony Loke’s tenure as Minister, where are the structural reforms we were promised?

When we look at his Cabinet colleague and associate, Hannah Yeoh, we see a leader actively implementing visible, tangible changes to the policy landscape and day-to-day governance of Kuala Lumpur. 

Yet, when it comes to our national rail services—specifically Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB)—the public transport system remains bogged down by the same subpar service delivery and stagnant work culture that has plagued it for the past two decades.


A recent personal experience highlights exactly how deeply entrenched these systemic failures are, particularly within KTMB's digital ticketing system (KITS) and its customer service management.


I am sure many others have complaints about KTMB’s commuter services over the years apart from just this complaint that I’m highlighting. 


For a senior citizen trying to purchase an ETS ticket to Penang, the booking process is a masterclass in poor user-interface design. While senior citizens are legally entitled to a 50% discount, the system conceals this benefit behind an ambiguous, poorly positioned checkbox that reads, "I am travelling myself." 


There is absolutely no clear communication on the application explaining that ticking this specific box is the prerequisite for calculating the senior discount. If a senior citizen logs into their own fully verified, age-validated account to purchase a ticket under their own name and IC number, the system should apply the discount automatically.


Forcing users to navigate confusing semantics—and subsequently penalizing them when they miss a hidden step—is a failure of basic digital governance.

Worse still is the defensive, unhelpful attitude of KTMB’s customer service personnel when these flaws are pointed out. When contacting the helpline, staff members deflected accountability, blaming the user for not clicking the box, and asking for "screenshot proof" that the interface was confusing. When pressed on why a senior citizen account needs a secondary verification box, staff offered the baffling explanation that "Adult" is a rigid category exclusively between ages 18 and 60, failing to understand that a senior citizen remains an adult. 

This lack of empathy and intellectual flexibility from frontline staff demonstrates that KTMB is operating on a "business-as-usual" mindset, entirely devoid of a consumer-first culture.

The breakdown in basic communication extends to KTMB's official online presence. The primary customer service phone number displayed on their website (03-22671200) (https://etsticketonline.com/contact/ ) is completely out of service.

Although being a savvy and more resourceful senior citizen, I was able to eventually unearth their newer contact number (+60 3 9779 1200) via independent searches, but how many senior citizens will be able tk do that? I was shocked that instead of acknowledging the number given on its e-ticketing site was out of service, its customer service agents flatly refused to acknowledge the oversight, showing zero urgency to pass the feedback to their IT department to update the website.

Besides, it shouldn't take eight consecutive calls just to reach an agent, only to be met with bureaucratic denial.

Beyond digital hitches, commuters face persistent operational inefficiencies. KTMB continues to schedule disruptive track maintenance during daylight hours and peak commuting windows, resulting in severe gaps in service—such as an absolute lack of Komuter trains from Subang Jaya heading towards residential hubs at 5:40 PM. 

While double tracking projects are sensibly carried out overnight to minimize public disruption, KTMB appears entirely disconnected from the reality of daily commuters, causing passengers to abandon the rail system in favour of driving or taking express buses.

If the Minister of Transport continues to allow KTMB to operate with this outdated work culture, the government will be forced to continuously putting more funds into KTMB to keep it afloat, since KTMB cannot even protect and serve its existing customer base, let alone turn a profit, considering that I am one who has promoted the use of public transport since 2005 in particular the commuter services. I establish the last mile shuttle service for college in Cheras so that I could take public transport myself and encourage others to do the same.

As taxpayers and citizens, we demand that Minister Anthony Loke step up, look directly into these operational inefficiencies, and execute a comprehensive overhaul of KTMB—from top-tier management down to the frontline care lines. We need a modern, seamless, and accountable public transport system, not the stagnation of the last twenty years.

Concerned Citizen & Voter Selangor, Malaysia.

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