Seed of hope: Loke (third from left) joining Sunway Group Chairman Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah (fourth from right) at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Seremban Sentral project in Seremban. — Bernama
Express train service planned, says Loke
SEREMBAN: Regular commuters between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban may be able to enjoy a limited express train service in the years to come, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
The journey time of the service, which will make only selected stops along the way, will offer a journey time of under an hour, said Loke, who is also the Seremban MP.
He said this service can materialise once the government secures more train sets and finishes the Klang Valley Double Track (KVDT) rehabilitation project.
“My commitment is to have an express service (between Seremban and Kuala Lumpur) with less than an hour of travel time.
“This is a possibility once the upgrading works along the Seremban-Kuala Lumpur line is completed,” he told reporters after the ground-breaking ceremony for the Seremban Sentral project at the KTMB Seremban station here yesterday.
Loke was responding to a question on why the current journey time using the Komuter service from here to Kuala Lumpur has deteriorated from 70 minutes (more than two decades ago) to periods that are twice as long, if not more.
Even the much pricier ETS service also needs 77 minutes to complete the same journey currently, stopping only at Kajang and Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (at Bandar Tasik Selatan).
Loke said the constraint comes from the KVDT work as only one of the two tracks is available from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur when one track has to be closed for construction work.
“The upgrading work will take about three more years and once this is done, we can look forward to better and faster rail service,” he said, adding that some Komuter trains are also inoperable, which contribute to the shortage of trains to run the service (at higher frequencies).
To address this, the government has struck a deal with China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) to lease trains.
Loke said those living in or commuting to Seremban will also benefit once the ETS from Johor Baru to Kuala Lumpur (and back) is launched on Dec 12.
Separately, Loke also denied a report in a Malay daily that said rail services such as the LRT and monorail in the Klang Valley had deteriorated.
He said the government has spent hundreds of millions of ringgit to improve the service in recent years, and it was way better than what it used to be.
“We admit that still there are problems, but to say it has worsened is not true.
“What Prasarana (parent of Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd) probably needs to do is to have better communication with commuters whenever there is a disruption so that they are not inconvenienced,” he added.
Loke said the ministry has adopted “mean kilometres between failure (MKBF)” – a universal industry metric for service reliability – as a key performance indicator for the rail transport system here.
He said at times, services can also get disrupted when tree branches fall on tracks.
“With our weather, this is bound to happen. But I also admit that we need to address such problems (to ensure uninterrupted service),” said Loke, who added that Prasarana will be asked to provide a detailed report on the number of breakdowns and disruptions to the media to correct this misconception.
