There Is Always A First Time

I was late for work this morning by 15 minutes. This is the first time I'm late for work. It has been over 3 years since I started working.

The reason I was late is due to an out of the ordinary traffic jam. I left as usual at 7 a.m. and this would enable me to reach office by 8.00 a.m.. Work starts at 8.30 a.m., so I have a 30 minutes buffer.

There is usually a crawl on a short stretch at the Karak Highway-Jalan
Kampung Bandar Dalam traffic light heading towards Jalan Sentul. It is usually a 10 minutes crawl for a distance of roughly 1 kilometre. I was perplexed as it took me 35 minutes to clear the traffic light and another 15 minutes before I saw the reason for the traffic jam. It is usually smooth sailing after that traffic light.

By sheer coincidence, 2 Intrakota buses were stalled at the same spot, heading to different directions (it is a narrow old road). Cars had to manoeuvre onto the roadside and squeeze past the 2 buses. Now how often can this happen?

The point is, how on earth did the buses breakdown? It goes to show our buses are badly maintained. This isn't the first time Intrakota buses break down, it has happened often enough to warrant us, the public to question the ability of our public transport service provider. Maintenance is a major weakness in Malaysia, from buses to machines to roads. We seem to lack the culture to keep things in tip-top condition.