IT was a date to remember for Miss Ng Zhi Wei, 19, as she became the millionth passenger to use the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) service. Ng achieved this feat at 10.13am on 11 January 2017-
27 days after the opening of the service between Sungai Buloh and Semantan for Phase One on 16 December 2016.

Unaware of the situation, she tapped her Touch N Go card at the Sungai Buloh Station to begin her journey to SEGI College, of which she is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Commerce, University Degree.

It was a pleasant surprise to her when she was greeted by MRT Corp Commercial and Land Management Director Dato’ Haris Fadzilah Hassan and Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Zohari Sulaiman.

As the fare gates opened, Haris and Zohari approached Ng saying that she was the one millionth passenger to use the MRT service.

She received several goodies from MRT Corp and Prasarana Malaysia Berhad including a brand-new Apple iPad.

“I am very surprised; but very happy. I would like to thank Rapid Rail and MRT Corp for these gifts. I am very happy with the MRT services. Before, my mother would need to send and fetch me to go to University. Now, I just take the MRT from Sungai Buloh to Kota Damansara,” said Ng.

Also present were Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd Chief Operating Officer MRT Encik Muhammad Isom Azis and MRT Corp Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) Line Project Director, Mr Marcus Karakashian.

Launched by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak on 15 December 2016, the first phase of the SBK Line commenced operations on the following day with a one-month free ride promotion on the train and feeder bus services. Users will only start paying for the services from 17 January 2017.

With one million passengers having used the system to date, the SBK Line’s average daily ridership was 40,000 passengers.

The trains see the most number of passengers during the weekends as members of the public try out the system in large numbers. The highest ridership in a single day was recorded on Christmas Day with a ridership of 67,000 passengers.

The busiest stations were Mutiara Damansara, Sungai Buloh, Bandar Utama, Kwasa Sentral and Semantan.