Rapid Penang

Rapid Penang is s a corporate brand owned by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) to operate stage bus services in Penang state in Malaysia. Rapid Penang began operations on 31 July 2007 and nominate Rangkaian Pengangkutan Intergrasi Deras Sdn Bhd as a bus operator.

This is the second public transport operating company set up by the Malaysian government. The first was Rangkaian Pengangkutan Intergrasi Deras Sdn Bhd which was set up in 2004 to take over light rail transit operations and a large portion of the bus network in Kuala Lumpur.

Rapid Penang Sdn Bhd was funded by the Ministry Of Finance Incorporated and currently is a wholly owned subsidiary of Prasarana. Like Rapid KL, the assets to be operated by Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd under the brand name of Rapid Penang belongs to Prasarana.

History
The Malaysian Federal government's move to operate bus services in Penang came about when the ailing bus network in the state started showing signs of collapse.

The bus operators of Penang had been facing financial difficulties for many years but the situation became critical when one of Penang's largest and best known bus companies, the Yellow Bus Company Berhad, which had been operating for 58 years, suddenly stopped running on 1 January 2004, leaving thousands of commuters stranded. On 1 April 2006, the Penang state government revamped the entire bus network in the hope of improving the bus service in the state. Under the revamped routes, bigger buses were made to run along "trunk" routes while minibuses ran "feeder" routes which branched off trunk routes. The revamp however failed to improve the situation, leading the Penang state government to state that it was looking at following the revamp which Kuala Lumpur underwent. In February 2007, Penang chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon announced that the Federal government had agreed to operate a bus service in the state.

On 31 July 2007, Rapid Penang began operations after being launched by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as part of his Northern Corridor Economic Region initiative.

Routes
Rapid Penang has introduced a fresh outlook for the routes it covers and buses serving them. Now there are eight corridors served by Rapid Penang buses. The Rapid Penang buses will display new color codes for each corridor it serves for easy recognition.

Rapid BEST
Rapid BEST (Bridge Express Shuttle Transit) is a new special free shuttle service provided by the Penang State Government with goal of reducing the volume of traffic traveling across the Penang Bridge to the Free Industrial Zone. The service began on 1 March 2011.

Fares
A new fare structure took place beginning August 2009 in line with the government's announcement to improve the delivery system of public transportation services. However, it was heavily criticised by Penang DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) secretary Ng Wei Aik who hit out at Rapid Penang for insisting on a price hike when the service provided was not up to mark.


 * Fare changes
 * RM0.94 for the first two kilometres (km) and RM0.094 for each subsequent km (the current rates are RM0.72 for the first two km and RM0.072 for each subsequent km

Note fares: Certain Malaysian nationals like senior citizen, OKU (physically disabled) and school children wearing uniform are eligible for concession fare.

Rapid ICIS
The Rapid ICIS, Short for Rapid Penang Intelligent Commuter Information System. Launched in the early 2010, the facilities provides commuters with live information of bus arrival time anywhere via phone call. The ICIS centre also serves as the integrated command centre of bus operation. The current Hi-tech ICIS centre is located at Rapid Penang Headquarters.

The Rapid ICIS also enables commuters to locate their bus arrival time via two other methods:
 * Rapid ICIS Display, located at KOMTAR Bus Terminal and Penang International Airport Arrival Hall.
 * The newly launched Rapid Penang iPlanner for Apple iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone with iOS4 and newer operating systems.
 * The new Web Bus ETA system has been launched on March'12 through their official webpage,rapidpg.com.my