I had taken a few train rides recently between BG and KL, on the normal trains as well as the newer ETS. I experienced delays using the old service twice from KL, which I attributed to more stops (train coming from Singapore) and once because of technical fault. I decided to switch to ETS, thinking it had proven to be efficient during the couple of times since I switched to it. Then, for the first time I experienced the train halted before reaching Rawang, owing to 'signal problem' which fortunately lasted only 15 minutes. Just weeks after that, I read in the papers that a ETS train stopped for more than 2 hours because of electricity outage near Tapah, and there was a picture of a diesel engine towing the electric train! In other words, electric train is of no use, without electricity! So simple to understand, yet it showed how vulnerable the service is to the availability of electric supply.
My wife planned to take the ETS to KL Sentral, and then to KLIA on a trip to visit our daughter in Dubai. Even though her sister in KL who will be on the trip offered to pick her from KL Sentral to go together to KLIA, she bought the ticket. When I told her about the delay in Tapah, she said that sometimes one has to be optimistic. Anyway, since my son is coming to visit us, he has offered to drive her to KLIA! This was before the latest blow to KTM train service as a result of a bomb hoax! I am wondering who would want to sabotage KTMB or was it just a prank by one or more students during school holiday. It must have been costly to KTMB, having to refund to passengers besides providing alternate transport, but more so in terms of the bad publicity on the lack of reliability as a result of the delays.
The Star: Over 1,000 passengers stranded at stations due to false alarm
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/2/nation/10017027&sec=nation
Link
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