Qantas A380 Engine Incident

The passengers were fortunate that the aircraft did not catch fire. It also shows that new materials used on this aircraft have very good fire retardant properties.

The flight crew were also very professional and keep their cool.

Thumbs up for well trained aviation personnel.

Questions on Malaysian Road Safety during festive season

Everyday we hear about fatal road accidents during this Eid festive holidays. Motorcyclists are the main victims.

Such losses are very sad. I am sure their families were very much affected.

What are we going to do about it? Who will be the main driver to find the solutions? Are there any quick fixes?.

Are there enough NGOs who would take up these issues and championed them? Are there channels in the media, who would follow through on implementation issues?

All these questions need answers, now. Before we start again on the next festive season few months away.

Or are we waiting for the next cycle....

New KTM rail service

The new KL- Ipoh electric train is much awaited. I am excited to see the technology being utilized. Also to see  how KTM operations will support the new service. I hope it will turn out to be what we all expected.
 Regards/ Zahir







Dengan kelajuan yang lebih tinggi dan reka bentuk lebih aerodinamik, ETS mampu menawarkan perjalanan yang lebih singkat. Perjalanan dari Kuala Lumpur (KL) ke Ipoh, Perak misalnya mengambil masa hanya satu jam 55 minit, satu jangka masa yang mungkin membuatkan anda berfikir dua kali untuk memandu kereta sendiri ke destinasi tersebut.


KL- IPOH KTM

Haramain High Speed Rail Project - Railway Technology

I was in Madinah/ Mekkah the last two weeks performing my umrah. In one of the visits to Mina, I observed the construction activities for the Haramain High Speed Rail. Linked below are more information about the project....

The Haramain High Speed Rail Project, announced by the Saudi Railway Organization, involves a 450km rail link between Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah. It will also pass through Jeddah and Rabigh in Saudi Arabia. Other components of the project include high-speed trains fitted with the latest equipment and five ultra-modern passenger stations – one in Mecca, two in Jeddah, one at King Abdul Aziz International Airport and one in Madinah. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

Haramain High Speed Rail Project - Railway Technology

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How will we cope in the year 2020?

Driving into Kuala Lumpur over the last few years, one cannot help to feel that we are losing the battle on traffic congestion problems. It is growing. Can't imagine how can we cope in the year 2020? Hope that we are gearing the traffic to switch from cars into bus/ trains...now...before its too late.

Pictures of Brunei Transportation

The pictures above I took during my visit to Bandar Seri Begawan.

BERNAMA - 10 Killed, Two Injured In Bus Tragedy Near Ipoh

IPOH, Dec 26 (Bernama) -- Ten passengers were killed and two injured, one seriously, after a double-decker Sani Express bus skidded and hit the road divider at Km272.8 of the North-South Expressway as it was heading north, about 8km after the Ipoh Selatan toll plaza, early Saturday.

BERNAMA - 10 Killed, Two Injured In Bus Tragedy Near Ipoh

My condolences to families of the victims. The issues of buses involved in fatal accidents are getting serious. We need to find a lasting solutions....

AZ Mokhtar 

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Move to raise number of commuters in the Klang Valley

THE Government is targeting a ridership of 600,000 people for public transport services in the Klang Valley by the end of 2012 under the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) initiatives, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

Move to raise number of commuters in the Klang Valley

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Showroom for new solutions - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

Showroom for new solutionsIn the next few years, several different experimental schemes will test electric cars in practice in a large electrical system.

Showroom for new solutions - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

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Failure in Copenhagen is not an option - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

Failure in Copenhagen is not an optionIf the world fails to deliver a political agreement at the UN climate conference in December, it will be “the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century”, says incoming COP15 president, Connie Hedegaard.

Failure in Copenhagen is not an option - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

Smart Traffic System

Speed Kills -Drive carefully

A video posted on youtube that was sent to me by a facebook friend. A reminder to all of us on the need to drive carefully.

Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation: Executive Summary

The report Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation provides a snapshot of congestion in the United States by summarizing recent trends in congestion, highlighting the role of travel time reliability in the effects of congestion, and describing efforts to reduce the growth of congestion. This is the second in an annual series developed by the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of Operations.Much of the report is devoted to communicating recent trends in congestion. (See Figure ES.1 for an overview of congestion trends.) One of the key principles that the FHWA has promoted is that the measures used to track congestion should be based on the travel time experienced by users of the highway system. While the transportation profession has used many other types of measures to track congestion (such as "level of service"), travel time is a more direct measure of how congestion affects users. Travel time is understood by a wide variety of audiences—both technical and non-technical—as a way to describe the performance of the highway system. All of the congestion measures used in the report are based on this concept.

Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation: Executive Summary

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Fatal accidents involving express busses

This refers to the accidents in the early morning near the Rawang toll plaza last week. Six lives were lost including the co driver. Yesterday the bus drivers were brought to courts.

• Punitive measures alone will not help to reduce the incidents.

• We have seen many accidents before. And the drivers were also dealt with in accordance to the law. But the accidents keep on happening.

• Something is amiss here. Did we overlooked something basics here.

• Those accidents are they the problems or are they the symptoms to the bigger problems.

• Let's benchmarked with the transport mode that have the best safety records. The air transportion.

• Air transportation have the following system in place:
~ Comprehensive law
~ Procedures on ownership
~ Registration of aircrafts
~ maintenance of aircrafts,
~ flight operations,
~ air and ground safety,
~ training,
~ licensing
~ And last but not least an enforcement agency that bites.
~ trade associations
~ consumer associations
~ close rapport between manufacturers, operators, employees and the consumers.

• The whole system is functioning well in air transportation

• Perhaps the road transport authority should learn from their air transport conterpart in the same ministry on the systems development.

• System thinking rather than fire fighting.
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Traffic Generator

The morning peak traffic congestion after the Putrajaya- KL toll exit.



Highways and Roads are traffic generators especially in urban areas. The more highways we build the more traffic it will attracts. Increasing the problem of traffic congestion. The solution that we choose is a problem.



Its about time we choose a different transport solution. Perhaps we should be more serious about public transportation.





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Simple rules but very difficult to follow

This picture I took at the round about of section 20 Shah Alam, this morning.

The MPV is about to cut in and beat the queue. She knew very well there are others who have been patiently waiting in line.

She looks educated but then unable to follow basic social rules of modern day living. I am sure this is not the first time she did it.

Be courteous and follow basic traffic rules should be the norms if we want to be regarded as a citizen of a develop economy.

If adults are doing it, why complained about MAT REMPIT !!!

End/ Zahir
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The new Skypark Terminal Subang

The new Skypark terminal at Subang is taking shape. What used to be the domestic terminal 3 is now transformed as an international integrated air transportation terminal. Apart from Firefly and Berjaya Air arrivals and departures, it also cater for business and private jets. An exclusive world class FBO operates from the terminal.

Work will also start soon on a huge comercial and business center opposite the terminal. It will also incorporate a rail link.

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Air Disaster

Today as usual on Saturday morning after my morning prayers I would spent time catching up with the news. Oh no!! another air disaster, and again happening in very bad weather conditions.  After all this years when we thought that the industry has manage to get their act together to ensure zero accidents. In fact few accidents have been recorded recently. As someone from the air travel industry I am saddened by these events. It looks like we are back to our drawing boards...

This accidents that I've attached is the latest happenings. My condolences to all the families, passengers and crew members.

A commuter plane crashed into a suburban Buffalo home and erupted in flames late Thursday, killing all 48 people aboard and one person on the ground, authorities said.

AirDisaster.Com News: Continental Connection/Colgan Q400 crashes in Buffalo, NY

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Kota Belud traffic

I stopped-by at Kota Belud on my way to Kota Kinabalu from Kundasang. This is a town that support many rural areas.

As most rural transport in this area utilized private cars, vans and the four wheel drive utility vehicles one would find this town's traffic is very congested.

To me this is most unfortunate as this impact the mobility of visitors to this town. The town has many unique attractions for tourists visiting Sabah. The local authority and Sabah Tourism need to do something about the situation.

Labuan Ferry Service

This is a ferry plying between Labuan and Menumbok in Sabah. This service provide accessibility to Labuan Island for the carriage of people, vehicles and goods. However there are only two services per day, which is inadequate. In my opinion the government should be the provider of the services. With every ferry service by the hour should enhanced the acccessibility and thereby increased the population economic activities.