PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 — Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) is providing six additional electric train services (ETS) daily starting on February 7, in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations and the school holidays.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said it involves four additional ETS services daily for the KL Sentral-Ipoh-KL Sentral route from February 7 to February 13, and an additional two ETS daily for the KL Sentral-Padang Besar-KL Sentral route from February 7 to March 10.
Two of the four additional KL Sentral-Ipoh-KL Sentral services are express trains with stops at only three stations, namely KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur, and Ipoh and will only take two hours compared to the normal journey of two hours and 40 minutes.
“The total additional tickets offered during the Chinese New Year and school holidays are 29,526 tickets. For the 32 existing ETS services, the total number of tickets offered is 10,180 daily, ” he said, adding the sale of the additional tickets will start next Monday (January 15).
Loke was speaking at a press conference after delivering his New Year Mandate and the Transport Ministry today.
Meanwhile, the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) will open applications for Temporary Change of Licence (LPS) for the occasion from January 15 to February 2 to accommodate the high demand for buses.
“This will allow other categories of buses, like additional express buses, to offer their services to bring passengers back to the village in conjunction with the Chinese New Year season if they meet the conditions,” he said.
The validity period of the LPS is from February 7 to February 18.
“Apad has issued a reminder letter to all operators of bus terminals to add the number of staff and ticket counters to manage the increase in passengers.
“The use of tickets with QR codes is encouraged, so there is no need to go to the counter,” Loke said.
Separately, Batik Air Malaysia (Batik Air) has agreed to provide additional flights for the Kuala Lumpur to Sibu route on February 6 and February 7 with a fixed RM399 fare for economy class in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations.
He said all the economy flight tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu for the three days before Chinese New Year were sold out, and the only tickets left were for business class.
“Following this, I have requested Batik Air’s cooperation to support MOT’s efforts to increase flight capacity from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu,” he said.
The ticket sale for the three additional flights on February 6 and three others on February 7 is immediate.
— Bernama
