KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke today announced that express bus firms travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban, Negri Sembilan must now provide coaches exclusively for women passengers on a daily basis.

He said the new ruling was the result of a request from women commuters.

"At present, there are three companies providing the service, and we have told them to provide four trips every hour between 5am and 7am for women only.

"This is to allow female passengers who travel to work every morning to do so in comfort,” he told reporters when visiting the Terminal 1 bus station in Seremban.

He also said the same four trips hourly catering to women passengers hold true for the evening rush hour between 5pm and 7pm.

Malay Mail received an audio recording of the press conference.

The Star daily reported today that roughly 2,000 people commute between KL and the Negri Sembilan capital using express buses during the peak morning rush.

Loke also spoke of the need to upgrade facilities at Seremban’s Terminal 1, which the 41-year-old minister said has existed since his secondary school days.

"It’s time that we look at how to upgrade this terminal so it becomes a modern terminal, in accordance with the times,” he said while praising the terminal’s strategic location that made it accessible to users.

He said he was told by the building manager that the terminal would leak during rainy days and added that his ministry will discuss the matter with the Negri Sembilan government and the Seremban Municipal Council.

Loke, who is also Seremban MP, said his ministry is looking at ways to modernise bus terminals in the states as most of them were privately-run.

"We have a framework where they can receive revenues from bus and car parking.

"They can also attain revenues from online ticketing systems or the centralised ticketing system,” Loke said, adding that this is an incentive for the private sector to invest in the construction and upgrade of the terminal.