Is the new MRT station too far from Cyberjaya’s city centre? We walked

Last week, we came across a Twitter thread of local netizens absolutely whaling on the new Cyberjaya City Centre MRT station:

Most of them described the station as “too isolated”, “in the middle of nowhere” and “inaccessible”:

As seasoned train takers ourselves, we get it – it sucks when the nearest station is really out of the way, and you have to drive or Grab to get there. Is that the case for the Cyberjaya City Centre MRT station, though?

Well, we went over to check it out, see if we could walk to the DPULZE Mall, the main shopping complex in downtown Cyberjaya, from the station, and…

 

It will take you 40 minutes(ish) to walk from the station to DPULZE Mall

Yeah, walking the 3.2 km is no joke, especially if you’re the sedentary type, like this writer. That’s 40 minutes(ish) of walking next to a major roadway with no protection from the elements, no pedestrian walkway and the possibility of being mugged on the way. This writer did actually try to walk to DPULZE Mall from the station but gave up after 15 minutes of traversing somewhat uneven terrain and sweating under the late afternoon sun.

The good news is, having someone pick you up or taking a Grab to the mall is only a 6-minute drive, even with the lepas kerja traffic. That is to say, there wasn’t really much traffic at all.

Walking to the Limkokwing University opposite the station and the nearby The Place @ Cyberjaya (a condominium) is also pretty doable – either will probably take you less than 10 minutes. You’ll have to cross the road with no jejantas, though, so that’s kind of a bummer.

Something else that’s kind of a bummer is the apparent lack of parking spaces at the station:

…so it seems like anyone thinking of parking at the station and taking the MRT will have to abandon that thought. And given that buses to and from the station haven’t started running yet, we’re not sure how convenient or accessible that option will be. After doing all that, what do we think of the new Cyberjaya City Centre MRT station?

 

The location of the station isn’t that great, but…

…it isn’t all that bad, either. Sure, there’s really nothing that’s within walking distance of the station other than the Limkokwing University and The Place @ Cyberjaya. No residential areas, no shops, no eateries, nothing. Then again, the area surrounding the station is marked for development, so we’ll have to see how it’ll be like in the distant future.

The real killer of the station (or any other station, for that matter) might actually have nothing to do with the location – it’s the general state of public transportation surrounding the MRT system. Taking buses to MRT stations isn’t a problem IF the bus stations/stands themselves are accessible and buses come frequently enough. Currently, the bus system in general is okay-ish at its best, and utterly unreliable at its worst. Maybe that’s what the government and MRT Corp should put their focus on next – the massive first mile/last mile problem that our public transportation system suffers from.