Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 17): As roads become increasingly congested and carbon emissions rise with more cars getting on the road, there is a need to promote modal shift from road to rail.

While changing consumption patterns that lead to the rise of online shopping is expected to reduce consumer travel associated with shopping trips — it is estimated that one in five trips taken by households in Malaysia is shopping related — commercial traffic will increase as a result.

Add to that the fact that the current movement of goods by rail is only 30% of total railway track capacity, with less than 5% of land freight being transported by rail — there is untapped potential for raising the use of rail to transport goods. Similarly, there is additional capacity on the existing KTM Komuter and intercity rail services which have the potential to be utilised.

There is also increasing urbanisation to contend with, and the fact that households in our major city, for example Kuala Lumpur, used 10% of their income for transport, as compared with 4% in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Hence, realising the untapped potential of rail usage would also improve economic contribution from the transport sector as well as increase the efficiency and productivity of the transport sector, according to the National Transport Policy 2019-2030 blueprint released today.

Hence, the objectives it outlined are: to encourage the modal shift of freight from road to rail, optimise the use of existing rail infrastructure and assets, reduce greenhouse gas emission and road congestion and reduce the number of heavy vehicles on roads.

Towards that, it is planning to:
1) progressively liberalise rail services to enable a multi-operator environment
2) upgrade rail facilities to and within ports to ease freight movement
3) streamline transport rules and processes like customs clearance to improve rail use
4) enhance road-rail intermodal connectivity to promote modal shift from road to rail

The government also elaborated that the additional utilisation of technology has the potential to address some of the issues faced as well as providing sufficient data to allow more accurate mapping of future demand to allow optimal infrastructure build out.

To optimise the use of rail, the government aims to create domestic volume for cargo and boost trading activities, reduce bottlenecks to ease the movement of cargo to seaport and airport, and establish a seamless and efficient total logistics systme to facilitate the efficient transportation of goods.

To do so, it plans to:
1) improve, integrate and expand from rail and road links to airport, seaport and inland port, industrial areas and hinterland
2) provide adequate hinterland facilities for port expansion and logistics services
3) expand rail and road transport infrastructure for hinterland logistics connectivity where feasible

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