The tickets started going live today (9 January), with one additional train per day each way for a total of 12 extra trips for the CNY period. “The additional ETS train will depart at 5.05 PM from KL Sentral and is expected to arrive at Padang Besar at 10.34 PM, while the train from Padang Besar will depart at 11 AM and arrive at KL Sentral at 4.36 PM,” according to KTMB in a statement. The train operator said that the additional trips offer 630 tickets daily which equals to a total of 3,780 tickets including seats in business class coaches. It added that the initiative was to meet high passenger demand during the festive season and to encourage the public to use public transport to travel safely. KTMB encouraged users to purchase the ETS tickets through their mobile app KITS or KTMB website for more convenience and faster cashless purchases. As of writing, tickets for the additional CNY trips are already sold out for 20 January but are readily available for the other five dates. For those travelling to Sabah and Sarawak for CNY, local budget airline AirAsia recently announced additional flights between Peninsula and East Malaysia that would be sold at a fixed price, in a move to solve public complaints about sky-high ticket prices during major festive seasons. While they are limited to late-night flights, the special seats are fixed at RM199 one-way from KL to Sarawak and RM249 to travel to Sabah. Regional airline Batik Air also announced extra flights for CNY, but not at fixed fares like AirAsia. While these initiatives will definitely help alleviate the high demand, there has yet to be a long-term solution for skyrocketing airline prices during major holidays. (Source: Bernama)
