In July 2015, KTMB Intercity finally introduced the new coaches that were purchased from PT. Industri Kereta Api Indonesia (INKA) and these Airconditioned Second Class ASC coaches are used on the daily Tren Rakyat (used to be called Ekspres Rakyat) between Butterworth and JB Sentral.
On 12th September I traveled on this train from Bukit Mertajam to KLSentral.
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| Same design as the new Butterworth Station |
The new station for Bukit Mertajam is a distance from the town centre, the old station was located right next to the wet market and it was in a very congested area. This new station has a huge compound and right in front of the station is an old steam engine "Kuala Lumpur" displayed for all to view.
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| Kuala Lumpur |
This Steam locomotive no 564.25 called 'Kuala Lumpur' was built by the North British Locomotive Co. Of the 68 three cylinder Pacific Class steam locomotives delivered, three of these locomotives built for Malayan Railways are still around, one in Port Dickson, the other in Johor Bharu and this one. They were delivered between 1938 and 1946. Converted to oil burning in the early 1950s, fitted with Rotary Cam poppet valve gear.
The new station has the same design and layout as the Butterworth station, which means that passengers have to face taking the long stairs up and down to the lobby and platforms, if you don't want to wait for the lifts.
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| Views of the 4 platforms |
There were 2 trains scheduled to arrive at the station that hour, the ETS service to Padang Besar which was expected at 0812hrs and the Tren Rakyat at 0820hrs for JB Sentral. Both trains originate from Butterworth.
Surprisingly, the Tren Rakyat arrived first, a good 10 minutes early.
This was followed by the ETS on time at 0812hrs
The train was hauled by two YDM's and the rake consisted of six new INKA ASC coaches, a Power Generation Car, an AirConditioned Buffet Coach plus 3 older Hyundai ASC coaches that had been refurbished with new seats.
The first thing I noticed was that the ride was very smooth when running on the new tracks up to Rawang and that the noise level was much lower than on the older coaches.. The airconditioning was very strong and cold, make sure you have thick and warm clothes.
The coaches had power assist doors that were operated by a button and had an air curtain over the door way. There were two toilets at the end of each coach, one western and the other an Asian squat type. There are lighted signs above the toilet doors and also in the cabin to indicate if occupied.
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| Interior of the new INKA coaches |
Half the seats face forward. For trains headed south, rows 9 to 15 are forward facing seats. The windows on these coaches are set rather far apart which means some rows have no windows. If you like to have a window, choose even numbered rows. The seats have a good pitch.
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| Good legroom |
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| Row 9 |
I sadly had row nine and was deprived of a window. Other feature are reading lights that don't work, and a power point which is oddly located at a rather low level.
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| Rather low location of the power point |
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| Asian squat toilet |
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A television is located at each end
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| The older Hyundai coaches |
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The last three coaches that were the older Hyundai ASC ones and have had a minor facelift with new seat covers. Totally new seats would have been better but this was still better than their previous condition.
Overall, these new coaches made my INKA of Indonesia are good, but had they been built with same standard as the ones used by the Indonesian railway company would have been better.
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