KUALA LUMPUR: KTM Bhd (KTMB) will operate its Komuter services in the Klang Valley round-the-clock for four days starting Jan 30 in conjunction with Thaipusam.
During this period, 609 Komuter trips have been planned, 23% more than the previous year, for the 700,000 passengers expected to choose rail services and other forms of public transport to get to Batu Caves, the hub of the festival in the Klang Valley.
Twenty-eight stations will operate non-stop, with attendants to facilitate passenger flow.
An estimated 2.5 million visitors are expected at Batu Caves during Thaipusam, a major Hindu festival in Malaysia dedicated to Lord Murugan.
“Komuter services on Jan 31 and Feb 1 will be free,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said at KL Sentral yesterday to announce this year’s incentives for Thaipusam.
He said there would be 302 Komuter trips on the Batu Caves-Pulau Sebang line, 165 on the Batu Caves-Port Klang line, and 142 on the Tanjong Malim-KL Sentral line.
Festive perks: Loke (centre) speaking during a KTM Komuter service press conference at KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur. Also present are (from left) KTMB group chief executive officer Datuk Azlan Shah Al Bakri, KTMB chairman Datuk Ahmad Redza Abdullah, Transport Ministry Secretary General Datuk Jana Santhiran and Railway Assets Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Azhar Ahmad. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
He said the current 98 trips daily to Batu Caves will be increased to 216 trips with a frequency of about 30 minutes.
“Our priority is to ensure the movement of the public during Thaipusam is smooth, orderly and safe. This initiative by the Madani government is meant to make Thaipusam more accessible and meaningful, especially for Hindu devotees,” he said.
To further ease congestion, Loke encouraged the public to use LRT and MRT and transfer to KTM Komuter at nine interchange stations, including KL Sentral, Bank Negara, Subang Jaya, Kajang, Kampung Batu and Sungai Buloh.
In addition to trains, he said 30 free shuttle buses will operate at 10-minute intervals from Pasar Seni, LRT Gombak and MRT Kampung Batu to Batu Caves from 6am to midnight on Jan 31, and round-the-clock on Feb 1.
Outside the Klang Valley, additional free shuttle and ferry services will be provided in Penang, while BAS.MY will deploy 169 buses in Johor Baru, Seremban, Ipoh, Kota Setar and Sungai Petani.
Meanwhile, KTMB will also introduce additional ETS trips for Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
Loke said between Feb 13 and Feb 22, two additional ETS trips will run on the KL Sentral-Butterworth, KL Sentral-Ipoh, KL Sentral-Padang Besar, and JB Sentral-KL Sentral routes, providing 26,460 extra tickets.
He also said ETS tickets for Chinese New Year travel are nearly sold out.
Ahead of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Loke said 44% of ETS tickets have been sold, and sales are expected to rise rapidly in the coming weeks.
To ease balik kampung travel, he said KTMB will add eight extra ETS services from March 13 to 29 for the JB Sentral-KL Sentral, KL Sentral-Padang Besar, KL Sentral-Ipoh, and KL Sentral-Butterworth routes, offering an additional 52 trips and 36,540 tickets.
