Shuttle complaints put Sepang transport under scrutiny before F1 qualifying

SEPANG: Complaints about lengthy shuttle-bus queues after Friday's Formula One sessions have turned attention to how spectators leave the Sepang International Circuit ahead of qualifying today.

In a Reddit post dated Oct 2, a user who said he had attended the event claimed to have waited about four hours for a shuttle and sought alternative transport for the following day.

A separate discussion included complaints about congestion around the pickup area. One participant suggested walking to Mitsui Outlet Park to arrange an e-hailing ride, while another described a smoother departure after leaving before practice ended.

The accounts have not been independently verified and do not establish the overall performance of the service. They provide no confirmed count of affected passengers, average waiting time or cause of the delays.

Rapid KL travel information reported before the event listed free shuttles from KLIA Terminal 2, Bandar Baru Enstek and Mitsui Outlet Park from Oct 2 through Oct 4.

The announced operating hours were 7am to midnight, with buses expected at intervals of about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on traffic.

Those intervals do not necessarily represent a passenger's waiting time when the queue exceeds the capacity of arriving buses.

Qualifying is scheduled for 4pm today. Friday's experience alone, however, cannot show what conditions will be like today or on Sunday.

Information on the number of buses deployed, queue management and departures after the sessions would help determine the extent of the problem and the appropriate response.

No specific response from the organiser or the bus operator to complaints about Friday's departures has been reported so far.

The transport concerns also intersect with airport journeys. An earlier advisory reported by RTM urged passengers heading to KLIA between Oct 2 and Oct 4 to allow additional travel time.