KTM ETS KL-JB for CNY – more tickets from midnight

Missed out on a train ticket home to Johor Bahru to celebrate Chinese New Year because all 131,879 tickets for February 13-22 travel are sold out? Breathe a sigh of relief.

Transport minister Anthony Loke has announced that there’ll be 12,600 extra Kuala Lumpur-Johor Bahru (and back) Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Electric Train Service (ETS) tickets up for grabs beginning 12.15 am on February 11 (that’s tonight), Bernama reports.

“I am pleased to announce that 12,600 additional tickets for the KL Sentral-JB Sentral-KL Sentral sector for travel between February 13 and 22 will go on sale tomorrow at 12.15 am using the newly-approved seventh ETS3 set,” Loke said today in parliament.

He added that KTM will introduce for the first time an EMU Plus service that will run between KL Sentral and Ipoh. This uses Komuter trainsets so there’s no reserved seating nor on-board toilets, but there’ll be one 30-minute toilet stop at Slim River or Sungkai. These offer 7,344 additional seats on February 13-15 and February 20-22. Sales are currently at 43%.

“Overall, KTM is providing 46,404 additional tickets for this year’s Chinese New Year, a 426% increase from 8,820 tickets last year, following the addition of seven ETS3 sets and ETS services operating close to 24 hours during the festive period,” Loke said.

What about Hari Raya Aidilfitri? Already sold are 118,823 of the 224,196 available tickets (53%) for travel between March 13 and 29. Sales of additional tickets will be announced once these sell out.