Malaysia’s long-awaited 1,000km north-south electric train service (ETS) has officially been relaunched, with the final southern stretch unveiled on Saturday—paving the way for a potential tourism boom across the peninsula.

The new ETS line, which connects the Thai border in the north to the southern tip bordering Singapore, dramatically halves travel time across the country. The long-overdue southern segment now connects Kuala Lumpur to the town of Kluang in Johor, transforming accessibility for both domestic commuters and international tourists.

Spearheading the launch, Malaysia’s King, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, personally piloted a newly delivered Chinese-made locomotive from Kuala Lumpur to Kluang—symbolising the project’s importance to national development and integration.

While the northern line from Kuala Lumpur to the Thai border has been operational since 2010, delays in completing the southern corridor had hindered the full potential of the rail network—until now.

To address current limitations, especially the scarcity of available train slots, the government has announced the leasing of 62 new train sets from China. The RM10 billion deal, signed in August 2024, will double the ETS service capacity and is set to be paid in instalments over a 30-year period.

Currently, the ETS is mainly used by local commuters travelling between hometowns and major cities. However, there is growing interest among leisure travellers, despite challenges in securing last-minute tickets due to limited availability.

Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi welcomed the development, highlighting its potential to revitalise small-town economies and promote sustainable domestic tourism.

“Hopefully we can see a boom in local tourism,” Wong said. “We are not competing with first-tier destinations like Penang or Kuala Lumpur, but we offer an authentic, laid-back vacation alternative for Malaysians.”

Indeed, Kluang—long associated with Malaysia’s railway heritage—is famed for its iconic colonial-era kopitiam café located at the original station. Though modernisation made the old station redundant, it has been beautifully preserved and repurposed as the Crown Rail Park, a tourism site where visitors can explore the old tracks, enjoy events under the elevated rail line, and savour coffee at the legendary kopitiam.

In 2024 alone, the ETS’s northern line carried over 4.13 million passengers, underscoring Malaysians’ growing appetite for efficient, eco-friendly rail travel.

With the full electric network now spanning the peninsula, and capacity set to increase in the coming years, Malaysia is well on track to reimagine tourism through the power of modern rail—one station at a time.