The price structure for the East Coast Rail Link's (ECRL) freight and passenger services will most likely be unveiled in 2026, said Malaysia Rail Link (MRL) Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Seri Darwis Abdul Razak.
Addressing senior media practitioners on Thursday (Nov 30), he said as a regulated industry, ticket prices are subject to approval from the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) among others.
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Addressing senior media practitioners on Thursday (Nov 30), he said as a regulated industry, ticket prices are subject to approval from the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) among others.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/37fs9cy9
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Sir, how do you see the ROI? Because there's a lot of skepticism about China's one road, one belt project, especially in Sri Lanka and all the routes and all this.
00:13 So do you see there's a real ROI that can be materialised from this project?
00:17 Well, strictly speaking, based on return and investment, you invested 50.272 billion and you expect to recoup the investment from passenger and freight, it will be very, very tough. Definitely very tough.
00:33 You cannot be charging the passenger, like, you know, no one will use this if you charge, it's too expensive also, you know.
00:39 But at the same time, we have to look at this in totality, you know. So the economic rate of return, maybe we can look into that, rather than the return investment per se.
00:49 Because the way I look at it, we can see a lot of, you know, along the alignment now, a lot of areas now being developed.
00:57 You know, the new township area also being built along the alignment as well. And of course, the spillover, the economic spillover within that is also a good thing also for the local residents, local people around the area.
01:12 They got many, we offered many jobs and all that. But I think, hopefully, the freight services will subsidise the, you know, the passenger services in the future.
01:23 It is also important that the corridor development have to be built from now. We have to plan it from now.
01:29 We have to, you know, because what is important is that it's not just completion. Completion is one thing, it's a given thing.
01:36 But what is important is to fill up the, you know, the corridor development along the alignment.
01:42 If we build along the alignment, coming up with a national park, for example, I'm sure they will use our freight services and it will improve our viability in the future as well.
01:56 How plans is the integration on the freight and the passenger fare structure?
02:03 I think eventually, eventually APAD, because of course the passenger fare structure is regulated by APAD, so we cannot be charging more than what is supposed to be.
02:17 So, and of course, but the freight component, this is where we have the flexibility.
02:22 But as far as the company MRL is concerned, as the operator, we have to make sure that the cost structure must be efficient enough, must be, you know, competitive enough as compared to the tracking.
02:36 So we will definitely, by maybe in 2026, early mid-2026, we should be able to unveil the price structure, the fare structure for both passenger and freight, subject to MOT's approval, the government's approval during that time.
02:57 It's very interesting to see, you know, because if we can promote the model shift from tracking to real, you know, this is electrified train, the carbon emission will be reduced and all that.
03:09 So a lot of benefit going for real freight services, real services compared to tracking and all that, of course.
03:17 But people will say, well, you're killing the tracking business and all that, right?
03:22 But eventually we have to look at it in totality.
03:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]