KERETAPI Tanah Melayu Berhad is providing six more electric trains (ETS) daily starting February 7 in conjunction with Chinese New Year and school holidays. 

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said this would involve four more trains daily for the KL Sentral-Ipoh-KL Sentral route from Feb 7-13, and two more trains daily for the KL Sentral-Padang Besar-KL Sentral route from February 7 to March 10.  

He said two of the four extra KL Sentral-Ipoh-KL Sentral trains are express trains that stop at only three stations – KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh – and will only take two hours compared to the normal journey of two hours and 40 minutes. 

“The total additional tickets offered during the Chinese New Year and school holidays are 29,526 tickets. For the 32 existing ETS services, the total number of tickets offered is 10,180 daily,” he said, adding that the sale of the additional tickets will start on Monday. 

Loke said the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) would open applications for Temporary Change of Licence (LPS) for the festive occasion from January 15 to February 2 to accommodate the high demand for buses.   

“This will allow other categories of buses such as additional express buses to offer their services to bring passengers back to the village in conjunction with the Chinese New Year season if they meet the conditions,” he said. The validity period of the LPS is from February 7 to 18. 

“Apad has issued a reminder letter to all operators of bus terminals to add staff and ticket counters to manage the increase in passengers. 

“The use of tickets with QR codes is encouraged so that there is no need to go to the counter,” he said. 

Loke added that Batik Air Malaysia (Batik Air) had agreed to provide additional flights for the Kuala Lumpur to Sibu route on February 6 and 7 with a fixed fare of RM399 for economy class in conjunction with Chinese New Year. 

He said all the economy flight tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu for the three days before Chinese New Year were sold out and the only tickets left were for business class. 

“Following this, I requested Batik Air’s cooperation to support MOT’s efforts to increase flight capacity from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu,” he said, adding that tickets could immediately be sold for the three extra flights on February 6 and three on February 7. – Bernama, January 12, 2024.