ECRL fares to be positioned between bus and air ticket prices
KUALA LUMPUR: Passenger fares for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) are expected to be announced by the end of the year, with ticket sales targeted to begin in November, said Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak.
Darwis said the fares would be announced by the government once the matter had been finalised by the Cabinet.
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He said ECRL passenger fares would be positioned between bus and air ticket prices, with affordability among the key factors in determining the final rates.
“Affordability is one of the key factors in determining the price.
“But we will position the ECRL between the price of bus tickets and air tickets,” he said during an Editor’s Briefing on ECRL Operation Readiness today.
Darwis said the ECRL would offer a more comfortable and reliable journey compared with bus travel.
“We will position ourselves between the price of bus tickets and air tickets.
“We will provide a journey that is much more comfortable and reliable than bus travel, and I dare say more reliable than flights, as flights are also exposed to delays depending on the circumstances,” he said.
Darwis said the ECRL Comprehensive Inspection Train (CIT) had recently completed a non-stop 519km journey from Gombak to Kota Bharu in three hours and 19 minutes at speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour (km/h).
He said the achievement confirmed the ECRL’s ability to provide an express service along the Gombak-KotaSAS-Kuala Terengganu-Kota Bharu route in under four hours.
“Once fully operational, the 665km ECRL electric rail network will traverse Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor, connecting towns, industrial centres, ports and tourism zones along its route,” he said.
MRL is targeting the ECRL to begin commercial operations by mid-December 2026, in line with the Transport Ministry’s request to launch the service during the year-end school holidays instead of the previously scheduled January 2027 timeline.
MRL, the project and asset owner of the ECRL, said the target was realistic following positive results from the System Integration Testing (SIT) of the rail network, covering signalling, communications, traction power and the overhead catenary system.
