The road and expressway network of Peninsular Malaysia may be well developed, especially on the west coast, but road travel is generally slow and tedious. While air travel is faster, it involves considerable non-travel time, including movement from city to airport, processing and waiting time. However, a high-speed rail service would completely alter the development landscape of cities in the peninsula. With this in mind, the National Physical Plan (NPP-2) has proposed that an integrated national transportation system be developed in which railway forms the core system for the transportation of people and goods while the road system provides an alternative. The two must be well integrated in order to work efficiently and effectively. Road and rail networks must also interact and interlink to facilitate multimodal movement of goods and people. The national expressway system remains incomplete. Its extension to the east coast, particularly to link Kota Baru, Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan to the west coast conurbations, is a priority. Supporting and complementing the national expressway system is an extensive network of lower hierarchy roads such as federal and state roads. These are essential for traffic dispersal from the expressway system, for local access, particularly to rural areas. Although the link between urban areas and rural areas may utilise different levels of highways and roads as well as railways or even air service, the most critical part of the system is state roads, particularly kampung roads.
The rail system remains underdeveloped and must be upgraded to link effectively the different parts of the country. Given the distribution pattern of the main urban centres, a national high-speed rail transport system will serve as a comprehensive unifying system linking all state capitals and conurbations. Going at speeds of up to 300kph or more, the high-speed rail will be the most optimal and appropriate choice in terms of journey time, capacity and safety. In view of the length of about 900km of the peninsula and a width of about 300km with Kuala Lumpur located midway, the high-speed rail system is the most optimal interstate public transport mode for the country. The transit-oriented development concept should be promoted as the basis of urban land use in order to ensure viability of public transport.Complementing the inter-state high-speed rail, the main urban conurbations should have their own light and mass rail transits. Railway stations will become the focal points of urban life and activity and community places in addition to being transportation interchanges.
In relation to sea traffic, Malaysia acts as a regional transhipment hub and its ports also serve as regional hinterland ports. Port Klang, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Penang Port and the Kuantan Port should be promoted as major national ports with a different focus. For air traffic, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has the strategic potential to be a competitive hub for air travel between the northern and the southern hemisphere. The strength of the airport lies in its ability to serve some 23 million potential travelers. There is also a need to promote more low-cost carrier terminals and a more liberal policy towards designating domestic airports to facilitate regional air travel, especially from the Asean countries. Domestically, with the introduction of the high-speed train as the trans-peninsular transportation spine, domestic air travel will become increasingly less significant. Within most urban centres, the transport system is neither balanced nor sustainable. In order to achieve a reasonable degree of sustainability, there is a need to have a more efficient, safe and comfortable public transport system to permit a modal shift from private car usage. Kuala Lumpur, for example, with a current modal split of about 20:80 in favour of private transport, reflects an obvious imbalance between public and private vehicle use.
The National Key Result Areas targeted to achieve 25:75 model split in Klang Valley by 2012. Hence, a modal split of 30:70 is proposed as a national strategy for all major urban centres by 2020
