The government says that it will strive to improve land connectivity in the east coast states to offset the loss of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), which has been shelved, The Star reports.
Transport minister Anthony Loke said these states would not be neglected despite the government’s decision to axe the ECRL, which was announced by prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad earlier this week during his visit to China. Mahathir said that the project had to be cancelled because of the country’s need to manage its finances.
“The decision to scrap the ECRL was made by the cabinet due to cost factor. But I would like to give an assurance to those in the east coast that we will never neglect you,” Loke said. He said that the government will continue to rehabilitate the existing Gemas-Tumpat single track railway line and improve the road network in the east coast.
Rail concessionaire KTM was forced to temporarily close the Gemas-Tumpat line after sections of the track, the signalling systems, stations and also the Kemubu Bridge were destroyed or badly damaged as a result of severe flooding in late 2014. The stretch was reopened in June 2016 following repairs, but the number of services have been limited.
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Another illogical comment from Loki. How do you “improve” public transportation bu cancelling the said public transportation? Don’t talk about Gemas-Tumpat because that was already ongoing project before you.
East Coast pipu prefers free monthly rm500 kupon petrol, they can use to refuel or resell.
Public transports > all
Already built them Lebuh Pantai Timur from Karak to Kuala Terengganu and Central Spine Road from Kuala Pilah to Gua Musang. What else these opposition state want?
How about better public transportation?
Good better best. https://paultan.org/2017/04/04/malaysian-public-transport-rated-best-value-in-asean/
“One landmark project is the Sungai Buloh-Kajang mass transit line, a driverless commuter rail system that will connect an area north west of the capital Kuala Lumpur with Kajang, a fast-developing town located to the south east,”
Meaning if we stopped doing so, we lose that advantage. Hey Presto! MRT3 is cancelled, LRT3 is downsized, ECRL is cancelled, HSR is cancelled! What a coincidence, shooting both foot at once!
I’m sure brain dead like you don’t get what ECRL is all about. It’s not only for people to balik kampung. If you study more about the route and cargo points you’ll know.
Genius, those ship will transfer their container to train and travel over land to Port Klang. If you study about time management you would know how long the time frame needed to do such operation.
It’s faster for those containers to travel from Shenzhen by train to Port Klang and ship out, than going around the Straits by sea.
I guess u never consider traffic for passenger commuter train and capacity of cargo train in compare to cargo vessel.
Editor was rite, and im guessing you never seen those snaking freight train lines that are prevalent in US/Canada/EU. ECRL is primarily for freight movement rather than people but the fact that its there makes it easier to travel. Too bad all that is a pipe dream now.
Do you ever see US/EU/Canada map?
They are landlock and we are not, our coast to coast only the most 300km width.
Dumkopf! The freight isn’t coming from one side of Peninsular to the other! It’s from Shenzhen, Xian, Kunming, Shanghai, etc. Do you think these places are in Malaysia?
Dumkopf, after Kelantan is Thailand not China. Check the map again and most China industrial area at coastal area not landlocked Xian. After train is not efficient as vessel where it can easily haul 500container in a trip where train the most only 100car. Dont forget you need to consider traffic of passenger train.
Dear Minister,
I am all ears for a concrete plans to improve the East Coast connectivity to the West Coast and Southern areas. A lot have been said ie double tracking for east coast rail from Gemas, a new highway and rail tracks connection to Johor Bharu/Singapore, LPT3 (announced but no detailed plans as yet) etc.
its time for the Minister in charge to act and deliver concrete plans to rakyat. Also, please stay out making political comments ie previous govt’s at fault or this new govt will deliver etc. We the rakyat needs to see Affirmative Plans supported by real budget allocation and periodic reporting in the Parliment detailing the Actual vs Planned progress. All these honeyed talks are over and you are now have been voted in and chosen as the minister. So buck up and deliver your promises as a Minister
Slirh, I can quite agree with you – how about linking up Mentakab KTM Station with towns like Maran, Gambang, and Kuantan all the way up to Kota Bharu WITHOUT any need of electrification of tracks? Methinks that should save quite a fair bit of our Government budget for transportation because electrification in primarily vital to the West Coast railway
What Anthony is saying is we don’t have to spend RM80 bil to upgrade from existing rail infrastructure. Plus ECRL would have cost us RM1 bil a year for maintenance.
What Anthony is saying is they do not have money to spend on East Coast people, but got plenty to spend on forgiving speed demons and new national car.
3rd national car need less than RM1b and can create for 90% local and decade.
ECRL need RM65b and only create job for 50% local and few years. This not include another RM15b of interest and RM0.3b of annual maintenance.
What RM 1billion? Experts have calculated that both national car projects costed us a grand sum of RM 200billion!
ECRL will be the economic multiplier the likes of which we never seen before, on par with Keppel Harbour on a certain island.
how about amphibian transportation network for east coast? river ferry cum buses that are annual monsoon flood weather proof?
How reliable is monsoon flood throughout the year?
How do you build that kind of transportation to ferry flood victims?
Just improve the tumpat -gemas track. Lots of kelantanese people use that tumpat gemas train everyday as early at 4 am in the morning to go to school, to work. People in the rural area also use the train as their main transport to go to market for selling their goods like vegetable and fruit. From what i know, many childrens use the train to go to school in rural area and also some of them commute between tumpat, wakaf bharu to go to work in dabong and kuala krai everyday. An improve transportation by the train are very needed by them.