Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) will be undergoing a ‘growth spurt’ in early 2027, with the redesignation of two stations as ‘hub stations’ and growth in seats offered for its Electric Train Service (ETS) and Ekspres Rakyat Timuran (ERT) services between January and March 2027. The new seat capacity of 1,573,872 seats on offer represents a 39 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2026.
New Hub Stations , extra seats
The addition of the Kuala Lumpur railway station and Subang Jaya station as additional ETS service hubs, will widen the catchment areas, allowing more people to access rail services and provide alternative station options for passengers. Subang Jaya Station connects KTMB passengers into the Kelang Jaya LRT network, opening up the extra services to travellers from the east and south and well as KTM Komuter passengers from Shah Alam, Klang and Port Klang. The historic Kuala Lumpur Station connects by walkway to the Pasar Seni LRT/MRT Stations, offering convenience to passengers in these catchment areas. The initiative aims to help ease passenger congestion at KL Sentral during peak hours and busy travel periods.
In a statement, KTMB announced that ticket sales for both ETS and ERT services would open in phases starting at 12pm on 2nd November for travel between January and February 2027, and on 1st December for travel in March 2027. Of the total seats offered, 1,520,592 are allocated for ETS services and 53,280 are for ERT.
The Statement further added
….Opening ticket sales earlier allows the public to plan travel better, especially ahead of school holidays, public holidays and festive seasons. This capacity increase reflects KTMB’s continuous efforts to provide more travel options to meet the needs of rail service users.
Extra Services
In response to growing demand, KTMB will be expanding its ETS services during 2027, by raising frequencies from 44 scheduled daily services to 50 daily services from Monday to Thursday, increasing to 58 daily services from Friday to Sunday. This increase of up to 14 scheduled daily services includes the main JB Sentral-KL Sentral-JB Sentral route, which will see daily frequencies rise from eight to twelve. Passengers will now have more options with the new schedule, particularly those included to meet demand during weekends and peak travel seasons.
In addition, KTMB will realign its ETS service schedule from 1st January, 2027, covering several long-distance routes connecting northern and southern sectors of the network. Under the restructuring, direct travel on the same train from JB Sentral to Butterworth and Padang Besar and vice versa, as well as journeys from Butterworth to Segamat and vice versa, will no longer be offered and passengers travelling on those routes will need to transfer trains at KL Sentral before continuing their journey.
Booking made easier
Under the current booking system, ticket purchases for long-distance ETS journeys requiring a train transfer at KL Sentral must be made through two separate transactions according to travel sectors and improvements to the ticketing system are currently underway to enable integrated ticket purchases through a single transaction starting this December.
KTMB has advised passengers to check the schedules of both ETS services and ensure sufficient layover time at KL Sentral before making ticket purchases. Tickets can be purchased early using either the KITS Style app (available for Android and iPhone) or KTMB’s official website.
With all these changes, KTMB is projecting a 6.5 per cent rise in ETS ridership to to 6.28 million passengers in 2027, compared with their projected 5.9 million in 2026, driven by higher trip frequencies and wider access options.
images©ET
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