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.
Read more about this topic: Rapid Penang
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