Keretapi Tanah Melayu‘s (KTM) Electric Train Service (ETS) is finally set to go all the way to Johor Bahru (JB) from December, with the RM8.9 billion Gemas-JB electrified double-tracking project expected to finish by end-November, The Star reports. This gives the ETS access to KTM’s entire West Coast Line.
“A total of 12 ETS trips will be offered daily under the full service schedule – eight trips on the Kuala Lumpur-Johor Bahru route, two on the Johor Bahru-Padang Besar route, and two on the Johor Bahru-Butterworth route,” Johor works, transportation, infrastructure and communication committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said in response to Kemelah MP N. Saraswati’s query during today’s state assembly meeting.
The ETS reached Segamat on March 15 and Kluang on August 30 – the latter proved so popular that KTM had to add two new weekend services beginning October 10. As of September 28, the Kluang ETS has conveyed 10,873 passengers – nearly 60% of them on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Of course, it was once possible to travel all the way from KL to Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar on the overnight Senandung Malam (glad to have experienced it before it disappeared forever), but it took seven hours. The ETS would be able to get you from KL to JB in half that time; you can then, beginning 2027, hop over to Singapore via the four-kilometre RTS Link. With the retirement of KTM’s Shuttle Tebrau, what will then become of the century-old kilometre-long railway line across the Causeway?
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malaysian travellers are grateful to minister Loke for facilitating rail until reach JB, none of the previous ministers including wee could accomplish such a feat