BUTTERWORTH: Tired of the notorious bumper-to-bumper crawl, one family of four is rewriting their balik kampung script to outsmart the festive exodus.
“Driving during a traffic jam can be exhausting,” said factory technician Mohd Azrul Hisham, 32.
The drive, he said, could take up to five hours or more from Penang to Negri Sembilan.
So he bought four tickets for the Electric Train Service (ETS) for his family to travel from Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur before continuing their journey to Negri Sembilan by road.
“Once we reach KL Sentral, my brother will pick us up and we will drive home to our kampung,” said Mohd Azrul, a father of two.
University student Lee Wei Jian, 21, has opted to take the train, instead of the bus, from Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur to visit his grandparents in Johor.
“I used to take the bus, but this year I have decided to try the train because my friends say it is faster,” he said, adding that he will switch trains in KL Sentral to Johor.
“The promotional fares motivated me to choose the train, and it allows me to avoid the heavy festive traffic.”
Computer analyst Verin Loke, 35, bought a train ticket from Butterworth to Kampar over a month ago to return to her hometown on the first day of Hari Raya.
“The online booking opened months ago. I always book early because I want a seat facing forward. A rear-facing seat makes me feel queasy,” she said with a laugh.
Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) said more than 70% of the 425,670 train tickets available have been sold.
The figure includes 26 extra trips over the 13-day period from March 17 to 29.
KTMB said the ETS recorded 227,512 passengers during the Chinese New Year balik kampung period from Feb 13 to 22.
This was a 72% increase compared to the same period last year.
For those heading to the east coast from here, buses remain the better option.
Peninsular Malaysia Malay Express Bus Operators Association president Abu Hassan Awang said tickets for routes to the east coast, especially Kota Baru, were selling out quickly, and operators are monitoring the demand closely.
“We can redeploy buses quickly to cope with demand,” he said.
At an express bus ticket counter in Penang Sentral, a clerk said operators could pre-sell tickets for the east coast routes and adjust schedules later.
“We have fixed trips based on demand patterns from previous years.
“It’s easy for us to add more trips as needed,” she said.
