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Hadi Azmi

Malaysia’s 1,000km north-south electric train service (ETS), which was belatedly relaunched on Saturday, halves cross-country travel time and could open remote rural towns to tourism in a country famously dependent on its cars.
But to unlock its real potential, the travel industry says more of the line’s Chinese-made trains need to be deployed, while the route – which runs along west Malaysia from the Thai border down to Singapore – needs a major publicity campaign to capture the imagination of local and foreign travellers.
Over a century old, the railway has been slowly modernised to enable faster and more reliable travel.
A second parallel track now allows two-way services and the entire route has been electrified, and level crossings removed.

While the northern stretch from Kuala Lumpur to the Thai border has been operational since 2010, the delay-plagued southern stretch was only launched on Saturday, with service from the capital to the small town of Kluang, two thirds of the southern span.
Nigel Wong, president of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents, said the ETS would boost both domestic and foreign tourism.
“While the service is very good, more could be done to improve the service in terms of capacity and also publicity,” he told This Week in Asia.
“More engagement is needed between the train operators and tour agencies to come out with a package that makes full use of the train service.”
The ETS is for now mainly used by locals travelling between hometowns and cities for work, but tourist numbers are also slowly growing.
The lack of trains, however, means tickets need to be booked weeks in advance, limiting last-minute leisure travel.
The government is already working to address this issue by leasing 62 locomotive sets from China to double the ETS service capacity.
Signed in August 2024, the deal for the trains costs Malaysia more than 10 billion ringgit (US$2.38 billion), which will be paid in instalments over a 30-year period.
On Saturday, Malaysia’s king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, personally drove a newly delivered Chinese-made locomotive from Kuala Lumpur to Kluang, to mark the launch of the southern stretch.

Kluang Member of Parliament Wong Shu Qi said the new route would be an economic boost to his small town of 170,000.
“Hopefully we can see a boom in terms of local tourism,” Wong said. “We are not competing with the first-tier destinations like Penang, Melaka or Kuala Lumpur, but instead as a sustainable vacation destination for local visitors.”
Wong has a good reason to be bullish. The northern stretch of the upgrade from Kuala Lumpur to the Thai border carried 4.13 million passengers in 2024, underscoring strong demand for rail travel in a country still widely seen as car-dependent.
Long defined by its railway tracks, Kluang is best known for the traditional kopitiam café – serving traditional Hainanese coffee and toast – at its colonial-era station, which has been replicated nationwide.
Modernisation made the old station redundant.
But the original station, tracks and infrastructure have been preserved as the Crown Rail Park, where visitors can walk the old lines, host events beneath the elevated tracks and still dine at the historic kopitiam.


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Malaysia eyes travel boom with launch of new electric train service

Malaysia’s new electric train service. Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on Saturday personally drove a newly delivered Chinese-made locomotive from Kuala Lumpur to Kluang. Photo: Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar

Malaysia’s 1,000km north-south electric train service. The delayed-plagued southern stretch of the service was launched on Saturday. Photo: Malaysian Transport Ministry

Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim at the controls of the electric train. Photo: Malaysian Transport Ministry

Malaysian king takes the controls to launch new electric train service

Malaysian king Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar at the controls of the electric train on Saturday. Photo: Malaysian Transport Ministry

The Malaysian king greets officials and passengers on board the ETS. Photo: Hadi Azmi

The Malaysian king takes a look at a model of the train he is about to drive on Saturday. Photo: Malaysian Transport Ministry

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The service could open remote towns to tourism but more trains and bigger publicity needed to unlock true potential, industry experts say


The service could open remote towns to tourism but more trains and bigger publicity needed to unlock true potential, industry experts say.


Asia travel

Tourism

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar

Malaysia eyes travel boom with launch of new electric train service

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The service could open remote towns to tourism but more trains and bigger publicity needed to unlock true potential, industry experts say

The service could open remote towns to tourism but more trains and bigger publicity needed to unlock true potential, industry experts say