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KL-JB ETS rail service rush puts fares under the spotlight

Chinese New Year seats are nearly gone and Hari Raya demand is building, says rail operator KTMB

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    • The KL-JB ETS now cuts travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru to about 4 hours and 20 minutes, compared with five to seven hours by car or existing diesel services.
    • The KL-JB ETS now cuts travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru to about 4 hours and 20 minutes, compared with five to seven hours by car or existing diesel services. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT MALAYSIA

    Tan Ai Leng &

    Chuah Bee Kim

    Published Mon, Jan 5, 2026 · 02:53 PM

    [KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur-Johor Bahru Electric Train Service (ETS) is seeing a festive-season rush beyond the December holidays into Chinese New Year and the Hari Raya travel window, that is reviving long-suppressed travel demand.

    It is also reopening the discussion of what value looks like on the southern transport corridor.

    In the festive travel run-up, about 95 per cent of the 18,864 tickets allocated for Chinese New Year travel from Feb 15 to 20 have already been snapped up, said Malaysia’s national railway operator, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB), in response to queries from The Business Times.

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