Friday, December 19, 2008

Kastam Sultan Iskandar - poor planning and testing

Forum talk

if you drive, you're screwed with the narrow lanes and the use of their Touch n Go card. I have no issue on the TNG card, though. The infrastructure was flawed from the start - just need a car to break down anywhere along the bottleneck-ed flyover, the rest you can observe when you're stuck there. 76 lanes? No use. The immigration staff will be catching mosquitoes instead.

if you take public transport, you're further screwed with the free-for-all boarding area. Queue? Malaysia does not believe in that. Actually, things has not changed since the olden times. Except that the sheer amount of people waiting for a single bus has accumulated to cause a stampede.

if you walk, you're gone ******. There is no pavement for you to walk into the CIQ.

if you swim, you're the champ. Wait a minute, the coast guards are lurking by.

the best? Perhaps is to get a train ticket.

observations
1. Malaysia, truly Asia...

2. Going by the frustrations of the CIQ users and denials by various officials in Johor, i think naming the CIQ after the Sultan is degenerating into an extremely embarrassing decision. I would think, oh even with the Sultan's support and guidance even though in name, people get this kind of (horrible) standard?

3. Business opportunity for Singapore - ask Johor to outsource the operation of the CIQ. Some commercial entity from Singapore (read: GLCs?) takes over the day-to-day operations. Pray and hope for 100 days there are some changes for the better. Meanwhile let Dr M charge at us with his crooked bridge pet project.

5 comments:

Nelly said...

Interesting take on that.

Whilst I haven't tried driving/riding into Malaysia for quite a while, my portion of my friends who ride bikes say they have their share of problems too with the CIQ.

When they ride bikes, they have to go through a narrow, zig-zaggy, MSCP-style, upward-inclining lane just to get to the immigration booths.

For one of my friends that tried cycling in, imagine the narrow lane + the fact that he has to battle the uphill climb.

~Nelly.

zhiming said...

went JB just now - for those taking public transport do grab a seat. If not, it's gonna be damn tiring and sweaty if the flyover jams up.

for riders the situation is somewhat better; there is a dedicated lane.

for drivers it's the worst; sharing 2 lanes with buses and what not. The 2 lane flyover snakes round and round the Malaysian territory like forever, especially during a jam.

however i would give them thumbs up for the immigration halls - the arrival and departure halls are identical. Elevators and signs are working well. But let's see in the next 3 months........

G said...

I'm with you on this take! scr** the structural madman behind the construction blueprints!

To me, the mega size of CIQ did not equate to the supposed commitment and resolve to a viable long term solution.

I bet the many brains behind this have underestimated the magnitude of the problem at their hands - resulting in even longer waiting + loads more inconvenience to day-to-day commuters.

Perhaps, moving "backwards" is the new concept of going "forward"?

zhiming said...

the one who planned the CIQ should be sweating. Or maybe not sweating since the monies already paid to them. Hehe.

there are some construction going on near the flyover. Hopefully they are willing to improve the flyover design, or at least separate the traffic by vehicle classes.

coOL.... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.