| |  | | | Pic © Konstantine Choo, KTMRailwayFan.com
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By Christina Low (The Star)
KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Apr - less than a month’s time the public would be able to stop at three new railway stations after Rawang.
The three stations are Serendah, Batang Kali and Rasa, which is part of the Rawang-Ipoh double-tracking project which was completed in December last year.
At present, KTM commuters have to disembark at the Rawang station and take another train, called the shuttle service, to the three new destinations.
“Infrastructure, track and stations have all been completed but we need another year to complete the signalling, communication and electrification systems,” said KTMB managing director Datuk Mohd Salleh Abdullah.
 | | "Most of our railway
tracks are more than
a century old," Datuk
Mohd Salleh
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The three stations are part of the first phase of KTMB’s Rawang-Ipoh double-tracking project before the service is expanded to Tanjung Malim under the next phase soon.
“When we start our services to Tanjung Malim we will have to consider whether to extend the KTM Komuter route from Seremban to Tanjung Malim or to let it remain as it is now,” said Mohd Salleh.
He said KTMB would be able to determine appropriate routes for the stretch once it had been opened to the public.
“When it is in service, we would be able to determine the timetable, routes and the number of services better as we would then be able to know and the demographics of each passenger,” said Mohd Salleh.
From April 21 to May 1, KTMB will be offering free shuttle services from Rawang to Rasa at 30-minute intervals.
From May 2 onwards, commuters will have to pay RM2.70 for a trip from Rawang to Rasa.
“It is a ‘shuttle service’ so it will not interfere with the existing Rawang-Seremban commuter train service,” said Mohd Salleh. 
Next year, KTMB hopes to run its third service, which is the Rapid Train Service, which will take commuters from KL Sentral to Ipoh in less than three hours.
It is a different type of service compared to the current Intercity service whereby it will be a classier train with six car set which is double the number of the current KTM Komuter.
The Rapid Service is said to be able to accommodate 350 to 400 passengers per train and is fully air-conditioned. It will also come equipped with a buffet car where passengers would be able to dine on board.
“The service, which will take only two hours and 15 minutes, is set to be marginally pricier,” said Mohd Salleh.
He added that KTMB was confident that the service would be well received by the public.
The Rapid Service will take passengers from the Ipoh railway station right up to KL Sentral with stops at Batu Gajah, Kampar, Tapah Road, Slim River and Tanjung Malim.
Mohd Salleh said the double tracking services were initiated not only because of the growing number of commuters but also to accommodate freight containers and the transportation of cement from the Kinta Valley in Ipoh to the Klang Valley.
“With single track we are only able to run 20 to 25 trains a day but with double tracks we can do 10 times that,” said Salleh who hopes that the services would begin in early 2008.
“We need the double track badly, most of our railway tracks are more than a century old, some tracks need to be raised especially in flood-prone areas,” said Mohd Salleh.
Works for the Ipoh-Padang Besar and Seremban-Johor Bahru double-tracking project was revived last month by the Cabinet Committee on Public Transport.
Work on the Ipoh-Padang Besar stretch will start work soon and would take about two years to complete.
Both the projects were deferred in 2003 in an effort to reduce the country’s budget deficit.
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