RAIL services are under-utilised and Putrajaya intends to change that by improving the facilities, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

 He said that the government wants to encourage the public and private sectors to use the rail services more frequently.

“If companies move large goods through rails, then it will reduce the number of heavy vehicles on the roads.

“We also can see there are a large number of lorries carrying oil and other goods and sometimes when there are accidents, there are those who get injured and some die.

“That’s why we prefer that large items are brought by rail,” he said, after launching the 2019-2030 National Transport Policy at Kuala Lumpur Sentral, today.

Dr Mahathir said the main objective was to reduce heavy vehicles on the roads by increasing rail usage, especially for long hauls.

“Rail is a big investment. We don’t want to build it and have it unused.

“In other countries they have efficient rail services. We want our rail system to be more advanced in the future like in Japan, South Korea, China and other countries.”

Dr Mahathir said more storage space and equipment would be needed to handle the goods at the stations if they were upgraded.

“That we will have to study to see if there is a need to increase the railway lines, (if so) then we will do it.”

He said experts in Japan will be consulted for advice on the timetables for further improvement

Any changes would be affect the rail operators as they are paid a fee for the use of the rail lines.

“If there are more companies wanting to use the freight or passenger trains they will have to pay a fee to KTMB.” – October 17, 2019.