50% KTMB discount for lower income group

The cards can be collected at select KTMB stations.

KUALA LUMPUR: Locals who want to travel at half-price on Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd’s (KTMB) Komuter trains can now do so through the Komuter 1Malaysia card.

Launched at KL Sentral today, the card can be collected at select KTMB stations by Malaysians earning a monthly income of RM3,000 or less.

KTMB business executive vice-president, Lt Kol Sarbini Tijan, said that the move was aimed at those living in the Klang Valley.

“This is to encourage people to get on the train on a monthly day-to-day basis,” he told reporters at KL Sentral today.

He added that the 50% discount would only be available from Nov 1 this year to Oct 31, 2013.

The move was originally announced by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak after he presented the recent Budget 2013 in Parliament.

Sarbini said that the card could be collected at the KL Sentral, Kepong Sentral, Tanjung Malim, Subang Jaya, Sentral, Bangi and Sungai Gadut stations.

Potential applicants were asked to bring a copy of their MyKad and the Komuter 1Malaysia form, which can be found on KTMB’s website.

The cards will be available from Oct 22 to Nov 21. After this period, anyone who did not collect them will have to revert to normal means for travelling.

KTMB, however, did not say much about how it planned to stop those intending to take advantage of the offer.

“We ask all Malaysians to be responsible in this… and believe that all Malaysians are good people and won’t make false declarations [of their income],” he said.

Sarbini added that KTMB had “means” to check if people were cheating the system.

Asked if KTMB would seize cards of those suddenly ineligible for the discount, he said that the company would use its own discretion.

Sarbini was also asked if the discount would cause the company to lose more, given KTMB’s annual losses of about RM150 million.

To this, he said that KTMB expected to get more ridership when the discount was in place.

He said that at the moment, only 100,000 people took the Komuter trains each day, when optimal capacity was three times as much.