Bussing It

Last Tuesday my youngest daughter Syirah and I rode into KL on RapidKL's bus service. Specifically we wanted to check out the ride to Pusat Bandar Damansara from our area in USJ, a distance of about 25 km.

Syirah will be starting college there in September and we are considering RapidKL as a possible mode of transport, other than her driving or be driven. There are considerable savings cost-wise if she were to use the bus on a daily basis as the student pass is only RM50 a month for unlimited travel.

That morning we boarded a spanking clean bus plying RapidKL's route U63 Subang Mewah to Pasar Seni (Central Market) at it's starting-point opposite the Jati apartments. It helps that this place is only a stone's throw from my house and thus is quite convenient, also boarding from there meant we are practically assured of a seat each

The driver wore a cheerful smile when collecting our fares of RM2.50 per person and was also helpful when we inquired about an express service route BET3 that we had really wanted to use. We were two and a half hours too late for that one though, the last bus being at 7am serving mainly people going to work in KL. So we had to make do with the normal one instead.

The ride was quite enjoyable. The bus was air-conditioned, and it moved at a fairly decent speed as the usual peak-hour traffic had already begun to ease, only stopping now and again at the stops for passengers to alight or board. No untoward incidents except once the driver had to stop and get down at a tight corner to push a stalled car out of the way so he could negotiate the bus round the turn. Kudos to him, he did it as a matter of fact, and I heard no swearing nor complaint.

This is link on the RapidKL site for the route:
U63

It took about 45 minutes to get to KL Sentral where we had to change to the U83 for Pusat Bandar Damansara (PBD). The bus stop is actually on Jalan Tun Sambanthan and and it was a good 20 minutes or so before we located the onward bus terminal at the ground level of the KL Sentral complex, partly because  I had decided not to use the shortcut because of the construction going on around there - an unwarranted fear it turned out to be.

Anyway, when we got to the terminal, there was a U82 bus to Bandar Utama already waiting and another one driving in soon after. Apparently U82 also stops at PBD so we boarded it. The driver couldn't accept cash as fare as the ticket printer was faulty. He suggested that we buy the company BIT debit card instead and load in RM10 which is enough fare for two persons. And so we did and off we went. Less than 10 minutes later we were already at PBD but decided not to alight there because the place was teeming with foreign workers taking up the government's generous legalization offer.

What better reason then to go on ahead to One Utama (OU) for a little retail therapy!

However it was a very convoluted way to get to OU, passing through Damansara Utama and the streets of Taman Tun Dr Ismail. It took nearly 40 minutes even though very few people got on or off along the way. The fare displayed on the reader passengers have to touch their debit card with before alighting was RM5.00 for two persons.

Here's the link for the route:
U82

We had lunch, then stopped by at Mak's Spenders… ooops Marks and Spencers, to buy  a couple of slacks for myself. It's the only place with apparel for my Mat Salleh-like proportions. And we can't go to OU and return empty-handed, can we?

After afternoon prayers and buying a casing for my Nokia C6, we started on our  journey home.


(To Be Continued)