IPOH, June 26 — Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) users from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh and vice versa will enjoy shorter travel time between the two destinations with the introduction of the ETS Express service starting this August.
KTMB chief operating officer Mohd Zain Mat Taha said the service will shorten the journey to two hours for the KL Sentral-Ipoh sector compared to about 2 hours 40 minutes previously.
“This is an improvement we have made for passengers travelling from KL to Ipoh, in line with the project to upgrade the system and infrastructure under Phase 1 of Klang Valley Double Track (KDVT) which is completed in stages,” he told reporters at the launch to promote Ipoh’s tourist products and destinations via ETS here today.
Also present at the programme was Ipoh Mayor Datuk Rumaizi Baharin.
Earlier, KTMB in a statement said it will introduce six ETS Express services from 32 existing services for the KL Sentral-Ipoh-KL Sentral, KL Sentral-Butterworth-KL Sentral and KL Sentral-Padang Besar-KL Sentral sectors.
With the service, these express trains only stop at the main stations and take two hours for the KL Sentral-Ipoh sector, three hours 30 minutes for the KL Sentral-Butterworth sector and four hours 50 minutes for the KL Sentral-Padang Besar sector.
In a visit to Ipoh last February, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the Ministry of Transport (MoT) was discussing with KTMB to re-establish the operation of the ETS Ekspress KL-Ipoh special train service outside the festive season.
Meanwhile, Rumaizi said in December last year the Ipoh City Council had taken the approach of launching the Visit Ipoh Year 2023 as a showcase for the Visit Perak Year 2024 and a preliminary move to put Ipoh on the tourism map before the Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
“This is aimed at promoting interesting tourism products and places in Ipoh with various activities and programmes planned to attract more domestic visitors and tourists from abroad to this city,” he said.
He said the highlighted products have been segmented into the 3H concept, namely Hipster, Heritage and Health, with the growth of hipster cafés, 27 historic buildings that have existed since the British era and sophisticated hospital facilities that are ready to accept foreign patients for treatment are the characteristics of features found in the 3H concept.
He said apart from making announcements through MBI’s website and social media, advertising through ETS is the latest initiative made by MBI in collaboration with KTMB.
“Since the ETS journey is from Kuala Lumpur to Padang Besar in the north and from Kuala Lumpur to Gemas in the south, MBI is very confident that this advertising will attract more visitors to the city of Ipoh,” he said. — Bernama
