My arrival which was too late in KL Sentral made my schedule a mess. The first day when I had to visit Genting Highlands must be delayed.
“You need to go back at night if you go this afternoon. If you go back in the evening, you won’t get anything there” a joked from staff at bus ticket counter.
Instead of I struggled at night in a condition that I didn’t got a hotel yet, I’d better postpone my intention to Genting and I would go on next day.
I immediately changed my destination….Yess, I headed for Batu Caves. It is the easiest and fastest way because the train which go there departs from KL Sentral.
But Guys, the train in KL Sentral-Batu Caves route operated in 2014. When I came to Kuala Lumpur in April 2019, KL Sentral-Batu Caves route had changed. See the route changes on this link:
New Route to Batu Caves, Malaysia
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This time I willn’t focus on the route, but I will tell about the line…. Yups, It is KTM Laluan Seremban (Kereta Tanah Melayu-Seremban Line).
Chinese technology in Indian destination.
Why is that?
The train which runs on this line is an electric train which made in China….While the most favorite destination in this line is Batu Caves which is a place of worship of Indian descent citizen.
Indeed, in the last few years, Malaysia has been ahead than Indonesia in boosting infrastructure with loans from Chinese government.
KTM Laluan Seremban has the last two stations which is visited i.e Port Klang station in southwest and Batu Caves station in north. In total this train passes 27 stations.
KTM Laluan Seremban is a commuter train route. Whereas commuter trains in each country are made to connect city center with suburban areas and majority of passenger are commuters.
Slightly different from Indonesia which uses quality used trains from Japan to be operated as commuter trains, Malaysia prefers to use “made in China” trains with a slightly futuristic shape. I was eager to try it when I saw its shape which looks like a bullet train in some developed countries
Tickets aren’t sold at Automatic Fare Machine like MRT, LRT and Kuala Lumpur monorail tickets, but these commuter train tickets are sold in cash at ticket sales counter.
In 2014, ticket price towards Batu Caves station from KL Sentral was USD 0.5.
The following picture is interior appearance of KTM Laluan Seremban
The prohibitions applied on the train are smoking, eating and drinking, littering, throwing gum, doing immoral things, carrying dangerous goods and carrying animals.
YAB PM stands for Yang Amat Berhormat Perdana Menteri (the Most Honorable Prime Minister). 1Malaysia slogan is a campaign to unite one Malaysian nation regardless of ethnicity and cultural differences. As Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) in Indonesia’s slogan.
Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co. CSR Ltd is one of many electric train manufacturers in China. This company’s reputation is very cool because it supplies electric trains for Macedonian Railways in Eastern Europe, Shanghai Metro in China and Rapid KL in Malaysia.
This modern technology train has several good facilities such as priority seats, modern cockpit for machinists, dynamic route map on each train door to facilitate passengers in monitoring the presence of trains, two female-only coach in each train, LCD info screen in each coach and of course CCTV .
Next is appearance of Batu Caves station which is the last stop of this line.
Well….If you go to Kuala Lumpur, try this train!