KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) expects the Transport Ministry to announce East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) fares this month, with ticket sales to start in November ahead of commercial operations in mid-December.
“We expect dynamic and affordable fares that will be lower than airfares and slightly higher than bus fares,” MRL chief executive officer Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak said at a media briefing today.
He said for the first phase, there will be 12 return trips daily from Monday to Thursday and 14 trips from Friday to Sunday.
He said MRL is satisfied with the progress of Phase 1 of the project (Kota Bharu-Gombak), whose progress was at 98.16 per cent in September, and is confident of meeting the mid-December target for commercial operations.
Darwis also highlighted the performance of the ECRL Comprehensive Inspection Train (CIT), which recently completed a non-stop 519km journey from Gombak to Kota Bharu in three hours and 19 minutes, reaching speeds of up to 160kph.
He said the run demonstrated the ECRL ability to serve the Gombak-KotaSAS-Kuala Terengganu-Kota Bharu route in under four hours.
The 665km ECRL line will span Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang before connecting with Selangor on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
Once operational, the ECRL is expected to cut travel time between Kota Bharu and Gombak to about four hours, from around seven hours by road.
