The continuance of the pass was already revealed during Bajet 2023 last October, so the public shouldn’t really be surprised that there is virtually no change for it in this re-tabled budget for the year. While the pass was expected to remain unchanged, it was only brought back last year to replace the cheaper My30 travel pass that only cost RM30. Former Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul previously said that on average, Klang Valley residents spend RM200 per month on rail and bus services. From that, he extrapolated that the government is subsiding about RM150 per month for each commuter who purchases the pass, which is a significant amount in savings. In case you’re not familiar with it, My50 is a RM50 pass that allows you to ride any Rapid KL rail or bus service in Klang Valley for an unlimited amount of times within a validity period of 30 days. This includes the LRT, MRT, monorail, BRT, and other Rapid KL bus services. Klang Valley isn’t the only city that will be offering a subsidised travel pass for its citizens, as Johor Bahru will also be getting one specifically for buses called myBAS50. The myBAS50 pass allows users to ride on any bus in Johor Bahru under the Stage Bus Service Transformation (SBST) programme. SBST is a three-year-long project worth RM150 million by the federal government that is aimed at boosting the quality of stage bus services in Johor Bahru and surrounding areas. Under Belanjawan 2023, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim added that the government is allocating RM150 million to extend the SBST programme to Malacca, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, although it’s unclear if this is an addition to the its budget or the extension is using part of the original allocation.
