Joy ride on the ETS gets better

KUALA LUMPUR: In addition to lower fares, passengers of the Electric Train Service (ETS) can now look forward to discount packages for families, students and frequent travellers. ETS chief operating officer Azizullah Kinayatullah said details of the new packages, which would be rolled out within the next three months, were being finalised.

Service with a smile: An ETS employee vetting the ticket of a commuter on the train yesterday. More perks are in store for commuters soon.

“At least 80% of our passengers are repeat-customers,” he said, adding that passengers even commuted daily between KL Sentral and Ipoh. He said ETS would be introducing student cards with special rates, monthly passes for frequent travellers and family packages for parents travelling with young children. The ETS was launched last August, offering a promotional rate of RM30 for the KL Sentral-Ipoh route.

Effective May 1, a new fare structure will see ticket prices as low as RM6 for a single destination. Known as the “low zone fares”, passengers will only be charged between RM6 and RM10 for selected destinations including the Tapah Road-Ipoh, Slim River-KL, KL Sentral-Seremban routes. “The new fare structure caters for all passengers with special discounts for students, senior citizens and the disabled,” said Azizullah.

He said the fare was divided into three categories. The platinum is RM45 for a non-stop journey between KL and Ipoh while the gold and silver fares are RM35 with eight stops and RM25 (14 stops) respectively. “Many choose the ETS as it is seen as the safest mode of land transport,” Azizullah said, adding that the ridership of 25,274 in August had doubled to 57,344 last month. Operating with three trains, the ETS currently runs 14 trips between Seremban and Ipoh daily.

Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad president Dr Aminuddin Adnan added that they would be spending RM500mil to purchase 10 new trains over the next two years for the ETS. “We hope to extend our north-bound service up to Padang Besar and south-bound service to Johor Baru by 2014,” he said.

-thestar online.