The West Coast ETS

Malaya's first railway was not a main line. It opened at Taiping on 1 June 1885 and ran down to the coast at Port Weld, to carry tin from the mines to the sea. More short lines followed, each from a mining town to a port, and over the next thirty years they were joined into one trunk line down the west side of the peninsula, finished from the Thai border to Johor Bahru in 1918.

That line now carries the ETS, KTMB's Electric Train Service: six-car electric sets on metre gauge, running at up to 140 km/h on double track from Padang Besar, on the Thai border, through Alor Setar, Taiping, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur to JB Sentral, across the water from Singapore. The whole run is about 900 kilometres.

No ETS runs the whole way. The trains from the north end at KL Sentral, and the trains to Johor start there, so the journey is two rides with a change in Kuala Lumpur, and a day is enough for both.

Padang Besar station stands about 200 metres from the Thai border, and Thai trains from Hat Yai use it too; Malaysian and Thai immigration share the building. The ETS heads south past Arau and across the paddy plains of Kedah to Alor Setar, with the limestone of Gunung Keriang standing out of the rice fields.

Below Sungai Petani the trains for Kuala Lumpur keep inland of Butterworth and Penang, cross into Perak and reach Taiping, where the railway began, under the forested slopes of Bukit Larut. Next comes the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, then the Kinta Valley: Ipoh, whose 1917 station is called the Taj Mahal of Ipoh, then Batu Gajah and Kampar among limestone hills and the old tin country. From Tanjung Malim it runs on through Rawang and Sungai Buloh into Kuala Lumpur, some five and a half hours and 534 km from the border.

The change at Kuala Lumpur

The northern trains end at KL Sentral, the city's main station, and the southern trains start there. They are separate services with separate tickets, and KTMB names no connection time, so leave an hour. A few ETS trains use the old Kuala Lumpur station instead, a short way north on the same line.

South of Kuala Lumpur the line runs through Kajang and Seremban to Pulau Sebang/Tampin and Gemas, where the Jungle Railway leaves for the interior. Beyond the Johor border it calls at Segamat and Kluang before it runs into JB Sentral, about 370 km and four and a half hours from Kuala Lumpur. The Shuttle Tebrau crosses the Causeway from there to Woodlands, in Singapore.

The trains

The ETS runs on KTM Class 93 trains, electric six-car sets built by CRRC Zhuzhou in China. KTMB runs them as ETS Platinum, the faster trains with fewer stops, and ETS Gold, which call at more of the small stations. The seats are in pairs either side of the aisle, every coach is air-conditioned, and each seat has a power socket and a tray table.

The ETS runs every day of the year. From 1 January 2027 KTMB runs it as two sets of trains that meet at KL Sentral: one between Padang Besar and Kuala Lumpur, one between Kuala Lumpur and JB Sentral. Extra trains run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; the ones below run daily. Every seat is reserved.

Padang Besar to Kuala Lumpur

All six call at Taiping and Kuala Kangsar. Going north, trains leave KL Sentral for Padang Besar at 07:20, 11:05, 14:35, 17:35, 19:35 and 23:30; the 07:20 arrives at 12:43, and the 23:30 at 04:53.

Kuala Lumpur to JB Sentral

Going north, trains leave JB Sentral for KL Sentral at 05:30, 07:10, 08:25, 11:40, 13:45, 16:20 and 17:20, taking between 4 h 20 and 4 h 40.

The whole line in a day: the 07:00 from Padang Besar reaches KL Sentral at 12:25, and the 13:20 reaches JB Sentral at 17:40. Northbound, the 05:30 from JB Sentral reaches KL Sentral at 10:10, in time for the 11:05, which reaches Padang Besar at 16:28.

Times as of November 2026, for the timetable from 1 January 2027, from KTMB's ETS timetable and its booking system. Check them on KTMB (opens in a new tab) before you travel, especially around Hari Raya and other public holidays.

Tickets come from KTMB, on its KITS website and app or at the station, and every one is for a named seat on one train. The whole line takes two tickets, one to KL Sentral and one on from it, bought separately. Book ahead around Hari Raya, when the whole country travels.

Fares change with the day and the demand. In mid-January 2027 the lowest adult fares between Padang Besar and KL Sentral were MYR 123 on an ETS Platinum and MYR 111 on an ETS Gold, and between KL Sentral and JB Sentral MYR 99 and MYR 77, with higher fares from Friday to Sunday.

Fares as of November 2026, from KTMB's booking system.

No rail pass covers the ETS. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and no Malaysian railway is in Interrail's list of covered companies. KTMB's own MyRailLife passes are for its commuter trains and shuttles, not the ETS, so the whole line is bought as two ordinary tickets.

Checked November 2026 against Interrail's list of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and KTMB's booking site.

The ETS stops in the middle of most of the towns it serves, so the line is easy to break: a night in Ipoh or Taiping turns a long day into two short ones. Three of the stops below share an architect, Arthur Benison Hubback, who designed the stations at Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur and the mosque at Kuala Kangsar.

Kuala Lumpur, where the line divides, is the natural place to stop for a night and make two days of it, rather than taking the change between the northern and southern trains on the same afternoon.

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