Behind the Scene of Rapid Penang

I take Rapid Bus everyday! Rapid Bus almost part of my life. It takes me to anywhere anytime i wants to go. Since 2007 when Rapid Bus started their operation, it had changed the way of Penangites using pubic transportation, it also changed my life with public transport! Between this few years, Rapid Penang keep improving their service, from increasing the route & bus, providing FREE bus around town & WiFi and introduce the monthly pass & ICIS. Not only this fews improvement, more will come in order to attract more Penangites to take public transport.

Taking Rapid Bus everyday, you may start to think for knowing more about Rapid Penang. Wondering how does Rapid Penang operate... How ICIS actually run... How do they train their bus captains... Who are the heroes behind the scene that make sure the buses operate smoothly... Many commuters especially those Rapid supporter always wish to get closer with Rapid Penang. Glad-fully, Rapid Penang had organized their very 1st Social Media Gathering with commuters last Saturday. This was an exclusively up-close Sneak Peek tour for us!

Early morning, all of us already gather at the Weld Quay Bus Terminal. Everyone looking so excited for the tour.

After finish registration and giving all of the goodies bag, they divided us into two bus.

Rapid Green Concept Bus(Whole bus with green)

Rapid Mobile(Inisde got PS3 & LCD TV)

We are then taking to the first stop for our Sneak Peek tour, Rapid Academy at Nibong Tebal. We have a well welcomed by their officers and also some breakfast for us! They also so nice~ *The sandwich and kuih is delicious*

The tour started with the introduction of Rapid Penang by showing us the video and a well prepared with full information of slide shows showing us the overall result of Rapid Penang.

After the introduction, we have a tour around the academy. First tour was a introduction of the Rapid Bus. This Scania Bus was mostly use by Rapid Penang now, One Scania Bus costly around RM600000 with full accessories. Here was a few facts about this Scania Bus: 

1) The bus door was interdependence! Even the bus engine already off, you still able to open the door by pressing the emergency push above the door or even outside the bus. When the bus door is open, not matter how the bus will can't able to move.

2) When you enter to the bus, you will passing thru the two big "boxes" beside the bus. This is a oil tank, bus captain able to pump oil from two different direction.

3) The steering wheel can adjust the height according to how the bus captain wants. It also can adjust to a "table" when bus captain going off.

4) Bus captain don't need to physically watching the commuters going down from exit door, they can see it at the screen above their seat! They also able to see what is behind the bus~

5) Every Scania got a GPS tracker! Each bus captain will have a pin called "Panadol" which contain their identity and bus route. They need to pin it to a hole behind their seat everyday their start operate. ICIS center will then tracking all the activities of the bus captain.

That are many more functions inside the bus such as OKU friendly and etc.. Come for Sneak Peek next time to discover more!

After that, we able to see how their train their bus captain with their driving test. Bus captain should able to handle the bus when driving it. Not only drive, they also need to making a long reverse with the bus! For further information, Rapid Academy qualified by JPJ to giving training for their bus captain. Anyone who want to drive bus can getting their license here.

For bus captain, even though they got their license, they still need to attend retraining every year in order to make sure they are well trained and always serve commuters with best quality.

After finish our tour at Rapid Academy, we then went back to island for our second stop, Lorong Kulit HQ. We finally come to the real ICIS Center that you will never see it before! Every time you see the ICIS display at Komtar Bus Terminal & Airport or when you called the ICIS Hotline, the people here who actually operate it and answer your call. With ICIS, you will able to know the exactly location of the bus. You will know who driving the bus, how fast was bus moving, where was the bus and going to where...

For further information, Rapid Penang will soon introduce you the iPhone application, iPlanner! You will able to know all the information you wants right on your phone!

After revealing us the ICIS center, the officer then bring us to walk around their bus repairing center. Telling us how their maintenance the buses quality. This is to make sure all the buses on road are in good condition.

After the tour around, it should our lunch time! Thank you so much for providing us the catering with delicious foods. We also have ice kacang! Yummy...

Unfortunately, the Rapid Penang CEO, Azhar Ahmad unable to have lunch with us. But still he feel glad that all of us support them all the time. YES! We will support Rapid Penang forever~

After finish our lunch, we leave to Heritage Tour at Craft Batik and Bee Farm.

We able to see how their drawing for the batik and also their art works! The drawing was so beautiful yet it is expensive. Next we went to bee farm, this is my first time here. We can have a closer view on the bees' houses. We also learned how the honey produced and process.

After a whole day of tour, we had finally reach the end. This Sneak Peek Tour have brings me a lot of knowledge on how their really operate Rapid Penang and what effort they are doing to serve us better. I believes Rapid Penang will continue being more better and better, serving us the best quality of public transportation. Hope there will another Sneak Peek tour for us, as this is the best way to getting closer with each other between the commuters like us and Rapid Penang.

Rapid Penang, always the preferred public transportation......