Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) will be adding 10 new sets of electric train service (ETS) coaches to its rail service, with the first of these scheduled to begin operation early next year, The Star reports. This was announced by transport minister Anthony Loke, who said that the introduction of the additional trains would double the daily trip capacity offered by the rail operator.
He said that last year, there were 32 daily ETS trips, with 4.11 million passengers utilising the service in 2023. The additional train sets, which will be introduced in phases, will bring the daily trip capacity to 64.
“With the new 10 sets of ETS coaches, the number of passengers is expected to increase to 7,547,565 passengers annually when it begins operating,” he said in parliament. Loke said this in response to a question from Rushdan Rusmi (PN-Padang Besar), who asked whether the ministry had plans to increase the number of ETS coaches due to increasing demand from Malaysians.
Rushman also asked if the government had plans to introduce affordable fares this year and next year, to which Loke replied that there were none, because ETS tickets were already cheap. “For other trains, there are other programmes that give discounts to senior citizens, among others,” he said.
The new trains will be complemented by older ETS sets that will be refurbished and brought back into service.
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Hope they acquire Korean or Japanese trains. Enough of disgusting chinese shits
The point is the train already made with new design in CRRC factory and soon to be assembled the rest at CRRC Batu Gajah depot. The localization of the assembly line and also material sourcing giving a lot of chance for Malaysian to perform. So even you are asking Japanese or Korean train , I can tell you straight that meter gauge technology is still far behind than the Chinese, especially on bogey stabilization system. We had Hyundai Rotems before in our ETS fleet , if Hyundai Rotems Class 91 were great, why no purchase further but ended purchase Class 93 ETS from CRRC ZhuZhou ?
Agreed, Comparing Hyundai Rotem and CRRC class 93. It is a big gap in term of comfort and noise level. I just took the train class 93/2 from Sg buloh to Padang besar. Just 5 hours ! which is great. Importantly the train allowed seamless walking from car train to car train without the need to cross the gap in between.
Don’t underestimate Chinese made train. They have many categories of pricing and quality of their products lineup. You pay what you get.