PUTRAJAYA: There will be increased Electric Train Service (ETS) frequency to northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia from April 4 to 15 to cater for expected demand during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri season, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
Loke said six additional services will be added daily for KL Sentral-Padang Besar and KL Sentral-Butterworth as well as two additional express lane services from KL Sentral-Ipoh.
“This will add 1,260 tickets daily for a total of 15,120 additional tickets for the 12 days.
“The total number of ETS tickets offered for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration will be 135,000,” he said, adding that the additional tickets are available to purchase from 5pm on Friday (March 22).
“The public can purchase tickets through the KTMB mobile app, KITS (integrated ticketing system) or ticketing counters at any KTMB main stations,” he told a press conference at the Transport Ministry headquarters here.
For those travelling to the east coast for the festive season, Loke said KTMB is also offering two additional train services namely the Ekspres Lambaian Aidilfitri (ELA) which operates from KL Sentral to Tumpat station and vice versa.
A total of 952 tickets will be available from Friday evening for the special train service.
Loke said the special train service will cover 17 stations: KL Sentral, Bandar Tasik Selatan, Kajang, Seremban, Pulau Sebang, Gemas, Bahau, Mentakab, Jerantut, Kuala Lipis, Gua Musang, Dabong, Kuala Krai, Tanah Merah, Pasir Mas, Wakaf Bharu and Tumpat.
On bus services, he advised consumers to report any surcharge of more than 10% for the festive season to the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad).
“The surcharge is not new, it has been practised for 20 years during every festive season. It (is usually imposed) a week before and a week after the festive season.
“If we do not allow (bus operators) to impose the surcharge, they will not be able to increase capacity.
“Maybe with the surcharge, they are able to pay allowances to the drivers. But if they charge more than 10%, the passengers can report to Apad,” he said.
On March 13, Apad announced that express bus fare rates for the economy service category will increase by 10% from April 4 to 17.
The agency said the Cabinet had approved a festive season surcharge of RM0.009 per kilometre, and this would raise the fare rate for the respective express bus category to RM0.102/km, compared to the regular fare rate of RM0.093/km.
