2nd ETS Ride

My wife was having two night stop in Penang and so happen I am free over the weekend, so I’ve decided to spend the weekend with her in Penang. Just like my previous trip to Penang, I must bring my bicycle there!

I can fly to Penang, but that’s going to be too easy and stuck with walking around in Penang during the time I am alone. I managed to buy the very last ETS ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth. Same process as in 2015, I bought the ticket online, this time it cost RM79 one way. The KTM website hasn’t really change this two years, still very crap.

This time, instead of using a car to KL Sentral, I took the newly opened MRT. Basically I rode on my bike to station, took the shiny new train to KL Sentral. At KL Sentral, I went to the KTM ETS counter to print out my ticket even though I don’t really need to. Instead of descending down to the platform nearby the ticketing counter, I had to go to Kommuter Platform C to board the ETS due to renovation work.

I was there pretty late this time, close to 10 minutes before departure, so luckily the baggage area of my carriage is empty! I have all the space I need to secure my bike there. I’m seat next to the aisle and besides me that day was an Indian guy. I later found out he’s a Catholic too and heading to Bukit Mertajam to attend the special event at St. Anne Church.

The train departed on time, and I spent the next four hours in quite a comfortable seat with spacious legroom. Noise cancelling headphones is a Godsend during long ride like this, especially when you have kids making lots of noise and their parent failed to discipline them. My U Mobile line was spotty at best along the ride, I kept myself busy with iPad games and a bit of reading. The data connection got better once getting nearer to Ipoh and onwards.

The ETS ride was pretty comfortable, just like the first time. The seats are clean, and the air-cond only gets really chilly at the last hour of the ride after most of the people disembarked at Bukit Mertajam. The legroom is really spacious, and if that’s not enough, I am free to walk around the train when it is moving. This is very much different from flying or taking the bus which you have very limited space to move around, and potentially dangerous.

Almost an hour into the ride, I was served some snacks which included a bottle of soy milk and two packets of biscuits. That was enough for me since it was lunch time, so I made my way to the bar to order some hot meals. The people serving the snacks were also the same working at the bar, so I do need to wait a bit for them to prepare everything. Queue also quickly built up there due to the small bar with only two microwave ovens and one guy working there.

After arrival in Butterworth, I still need to carry my bike and stuff  up the pedestrian bridge, crossing the railways to reach the ferry terminal. There is a free shuttle bus which run between the ferry terminal and bus terminal for the people who have difficulties climbing stairs. However they still have to climb the ramp heading to the ferry terminal, because pedestrian are seated on the top floor of the ferry.

After my shot getaway in Penang, I took the bus back from Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal because the tickets for ETS has been sold out. Yes I do same some time and trouble not needing to cross the Straits with ferry, but the supposedly 5 hours journey turned 7 hours! The bus was stuck in traffic jam three times along the way returning back to Kuala Lumpur. So I’ll take the ETS anytime if I got a choice.

ETS Review

Inspired by my friend Alan Bligh, I wanted to find a chance to take a train ride to Penang. Finally I got my chance when my primary school mate invited me to his wedding dinner at Georgetown, Penang. Taking another friend’s advice, I booked the train ticket early online. I don’t have a working printer at home, if had one, I would be able to print the tickets at home. However I can print at the ticking counter.

I arrive at KL Sentral quite early, not sure of how long is the queue to get my tickets printed. It turns out the queue isn’t long, and I got my ticket in less than 10 minutes. So after that I proceed to the waiting area. All the seats there has already been taken, but it wasn’t considered crowded. I only get to board the train 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. Since the waiting area is so close to where the cab put you, there’s little reason to come and wait too early.

Boarding hall

Coming down to the platform, I was greeted with a surprise. The train that I’m taking is the brand new one just started service since May. My seat is in coach E, finding the correct coach is a little tricky. There’s a rack just nearby the entrance to the coach, and I manage to fit my bike underneath it and locking together with bicycle chain.

My bike fit nicely below the rack.

The first thing I notice once I got to my seat is that the leg room is considerably bigger than the economy seats in the plane. Since it is a new train, the cabin is sparkling clean, which I hope it will be maintained like this for the years to come.

The train departed on time at 0930HR and on the way to up north, the sun is shining in from the right side. There is shade for the windows if you don’t want the sun light, but they’re usually kept open and shared between two row of seats. So those of you who do not liek the sun light might want to take note.

There’s a TV screen playing a movie without any sound in front of the 1 row of seat, it also shows the train’s cruising speed. The train manage to run at around 140KM/h on a straight. Even at that speed, it doesn’t sound as loud as inside a jetliner. I don’t need to raise my headphone volume so loud to listen to music (I couldn’t afford active noise canceling headphones).

Surau in the train.

There are different kind of seat configurations in the coach. Half of the seats are facing backward, and the last row has table stye with seat facing each other. The toilets are at coach B and E. There’s another toilet which is wheelchair friendly at coach D. If there is no PRM on board, the hallway outside it has more room for folded bicycle.

After a while, part of the cabin become really cold and I start to look for something warm to eat. Unfortunately, they do not stock hot meals until passing Ipoh station. They do have sandwiches and hot beverages before that. I got myself some nasi lemak and fried beehun since I was quite hungry then. Finally the train reach Butterworth at 1340HR and I enjoyed the ride very much.

I took another train back to KL the next day, and this time it is the older electric train. The facilities are older and aren’t as clean, but they’re still pretty well maintained. This time the rack isn’t there, but there’s a really big space in front of the first seat, so I manage to place my bike there, on upright position, locking and securing it to the handle bars. The seating configuration is also different from the newer train, but they are well described in AhPek Biker’s blog.

Even though it took longer time than taking a flight, but I find the whole process less stressful and best of all, I can even bring in a folded bike with me. I will definitely do this again, I can’t wait to spend more time cycling around Georgetown.