KLIA Electric Rail Link:Better than Europe?

[Ijud]

The Star: 1st Oct. 2004

EXPRESS Rail Link Sdn Bhd's (ERL) focus in the immediate term is to grow its passenger numbers and profits before pursuing plans for a listing on Bursa Malaysia.

That is why it has yet to appoint any merchant banker to advise on the planned flotation even though it has received several proposals.

“We are concentrating on building up our numbers (passengers and profit) – which are showing an encouraging trend – before appointing a merchant bank. Whether the listing happens next year depends on our numbers,” ERL chief executive officer Dr Aminuddin Adnan said in Madrid, where the company was an exhibitor at the 10th World Route Development Forum this week.

The company chalked up an operational profit in 2003 and expects to maintain its performance this year.

Increasing market share means improving ridership and that remains its ongoing focus. To this end, it has several plans, among which is increasing international ridership. For that it wants to work with airlines to explore ways of packaging rail transport as part of its air ticket offering to travellers.

“We want to talk to airlines to offer the KLIA Express service as part of the offering to travellers. This would be done next year and that would boost our ridership,'' Aminuddin said.

“We began working with hotels and travel agents (to package rail transport as part of the offering to guests), the next step is to work with airlines,” he added.

ERL also wants to increase the number of airlines offering check-in facilities at KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT) at KL Sentral terminal from the current three – Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Brunei Airlines.

To this end, it is in talks with Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways and even Garuda Indonesia.

As part of efforts to increase ridership, the company offers porter service at the KL International Airport to users of KLIA Express.

Malaysians make up 60% of KLIA Express passengers. Last year the company carried 1.75 million passengers and this year the target is 2.2 million.

With all these plans in place, Aminuddin is confident that ERL will be able to increase its market share of passengers travelling to and from KLIA to 20% next year from 16%.

About 35,000 to 45,000 passengers travel to and from KLIA daily, via private vehicles, coaches or airport limousines.

“There is big scope for us to increase market share and we want to do just that to grow our numbers and profitability,” Aminuddin said.

[jpatokal]

"Operational profit" means that earnings are more than the costs of running the trains and paying the staff. While good, this is very far from a real profit, which includes interest payments on loans as well -- typically a very large expense for any mass transit system.

The KLIA Ekspres is a good service (I always take it when in town), but the connectivity to the KL monorail in particular must be improved...

[mrtfreak]

i'm rather suprised that KLIA ekspres was able to break even in around a years time after opening on 28 april 02. at the same time, i'm not. an airport express line would be in demand, especially with KLIA being so far and the line cutting down travel time by half. i agree jpatokal. the monorail must terminate in the building or extension of building. i hate to think of all that money wasted if the current monorail station was only temporary

[jpatokal]

Now this is interesting (http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BT/Thursday/Corporate/BT559966.txt/Article/):
EXPRESS Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL), which ferries air travellers between Kuala Lumpur Sentral and the KL International Airport (KLIA), plans to extend its railway tracks to the newly-built Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT).

ERL chief executive officer Dr Aminuddin Adnan said the train operator plans to lay 11km of additional railway tracks which will take between 12 and 18 months to complete. ERL is currently 57km long.

"ERL submitted its proposal to the Transport Ministry three weeks ago and
the contractor will probably be local. We are keen to construct the link between the main terminal and the LCCT but we do not know yet when we can start," Aminuddin told Business Times in a phone interview yesterday. ...

Launched four years ago, ERL has a 30-year concession to operate. It carried its 10 millionth passenger in September last year and targets to ferry 6,000 passengers a day by the year-end.

[Ijud]

Note: ERL 11km extension proposal only costs RM10 mil compared to the monorail proposal which is RM90 mil...

[jpatokal]

Lurching forward (http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=228527):
PUTRAJAYA, Nov 8 (Bernama) -- A rail link between the KL International Airport (KLIA)'s main terminal building and the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) will be built next year, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy announced Wednesday.

A detailed study of the project would be carried out by the Economic Planning Unit and submitted to the cabinet in two months time for decision, he said. ...

Approved by the government yesterday, the project would see the construction of a 13.4 km rail link with a travel time of 11 minutes between the two entities.

Chan also refused to comment when asked whether ERL, the current operator of the high speed train between KL Sentral and KLIA would be given the job to construct the link.

He, however, said that the company had submitted a proposal.

The other contender is MTrans, the people who built the KL Monorail.

[jpatokal]

Also, what happened to the plan to allow people to ship baggage from the airport to KL Sentral? From the PUTRA station, you can see the baggage claim area, slowly piling up dust...
OMG! It's alive after all! (http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=229565)

High-speed train operator, Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERLSB), will introduce check-out baggage handling service at the KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT) by November 2007 to enable passengers to pick up their luggage when they are in town.

Its chief executive officer, Dr Aminuddin Adnan, said for a start the company will tie up with Malaysia Airlines to promote the service for the latter's long-haul passengers.

"We will tie up with other airlines to promote the service when it is well- accepted by the passengers," he said.
But wait, there's more:
On the building of rail link between KL International Airport (KLIA) and Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) (http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=1594), Aminuddin said the company was awaiting the government decision.

He said the project was expected to be completed within 15 months.

That's a pretty ambitious schedule to say the least :eek:

[GWR]

New, bigger LCCT to be built

By V.P. SUJATA

PUTRAJAYA: A new and bigger Low-Cost Carrier Terminal for the KL International Airport will be built in three to four years' time as the current LCCT is nearing its full capacity of 10 million passengers a year.

The new terminal with the capacity to accommodate 30 million passengers a year will be located closer to the main terminal.

The Express Rail Link services, which were initially planned for the current LCCT would not proceed, as it would be connected with the new LCCT later.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced this after chairing the Cabinet Committee Meeting on Public Transportation here today. He said the current LCCT would undergo further expansion to increase its capacity to accommodate 15 million passengers annually.

"The Cabinet committee had agreed to the construction of the new LCCT and for immediate allocation for the expansion of the current LCCT which will soon reach its maximum capacity.

"The new LCCT will take three to four years to complete while the current one would be converted for some other use," he said, adding that low-cost carrier AirAsia would be operating the new LCCT.

The current LCCT, built at a cost of RM108mil started operations in March last year. Among the expansion plans for it are work on the arrival and departure lounges, and the carpark.

He said the plan for the new LCCT would be finalised in a month.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy, who was present at the meeting, said the current LCCT, which was designed as a warehouse, would be converted into a cargo terminal when the new LCCT starts operating.

He said although the Government anticipated the current LCCT would reach maximum capacity soon, they had to build it first before they could plan the bigger LCCT.

Najib also said that the Transport Ministry was taking steps to address complaints by the disabled community that RapidKL and Rapid Penang buses were not disabled-friendly despite their earlier appeals.



http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/9/nation/20070809193257&sec=nation

[GWR]

Specific report links not available:
http://www.bernama.com.my/

VMY'07 Boosts ERL Ridership, To Increase 30-40 Pct By Year End

From Umi Hani Sharani

STOCKHOLM, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- The Visit Malaysia Year 2007 drive has helped increase ridership on Express Rail Link's (ERL) express and transit services between the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the city centre.

ERL chief executive officer Dr Aminuddin Adnan said that compared to the drop last year due to the opening of the low-cost carrier terminal, ridership of the KLIA Express rose by 24.4 percent as at last August while KLIA Transit's traffic grew by 26 percent.

He told the Malaysian media recently at the World Route Development Forum here that the firm, which operates the high-speed direct rail services, has also mounted its own advertising campaign and hopes the KLIA Express passenger volume will grow by 30 percent and KLIA Transit by 40 percent.

He said that for August, the ridership for KLIA Express averaged at 6,660 daily, but expects the volume for the whole year to average 5,100 passengers daily.

The KLIA Transit meanwhile is expected to average around 6,950 passengers daily for the whole year.

-- BERNAMA

October 01, 2007 22:07 PM
ERL To Offer Check-out Service At KL Sentral Early Next Year

From Umi Hani Sharani

STOCKHOLM, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd, the operator of the high-speed direct rail service between the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the city, plans to provide a check-out service at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station for passengers arriving on board Malaysia Airlines flights early next year.

Its chief executive officer, Dr Aminuddin Adnan, said this will be done via the installation of a RM100 million high speed conveyor belt at the airport which will enable baggage to be transported to the satellite building almost five times faster before being shipped off by the rail service to ERL's KL Sentral station.

"With this system, passengers can walk around KLIA, maybe do a little shopping, before boarding the train and picking up their baggage at KL Sentral," he told Malaysian media recently at the World Route Development Forum here.

According to Dr Aminuddin, the high speed baggage handling system to be built by German firm Siemens AG and funded by the government, will be ready by November and will undergo a trial run for a month.

Baggage will be tagged by bar codes which allow passengers to keep track of them, and there will be no time limit for them to pick up the bags.

"We are talking to Malaysia Airlines to package this service with their sales. We believe this will be more attractive to the foreigners," he said.

He added that ERL has yet to start talking to other airlines for this service until the service agreement is finalised with Malaysia Airlines.

Security, he said, will not be an issue as all the necessary procedures involving the authorities will be taken at the check-out counter.

"There will be a slight increase in baggage handling manpower, but security won't be an issue," he said.

Dr Aminuddin said the firm expects the check-out service to achieve, if not surpass, the volume of the check-in service currently operating at KL Sentral.

"About 20 percent of the passengers use our check-in service currently, and we hope to attract the same kind of passenger numbers, or maybe extra 5-10 percent passengers. It depends on the promotion by airlines as well," he noted.

He also said that ERL is in talks with several airlines including Thai Airways, KLM and Air France to open check-in service counters at KL Sentral.

-- BERNAMA

[jpatokal]

Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd, the operator of the high-speed direct rail service between the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the city, plans to provide a check-out service at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station for passengers arriving on board Malaysia Airlines flights early next year.

Its chief executive officer, Dr Aminuddin Adnan, said this will be done via the installation of a RM100 million high speed conveyor belt at the airport which will enable baggage to be transported to the satellite building almost five times faster before being shipped off by the rail service to ERL's KL Sentral station.

The unspun version: KLIA's gremlin-filled baggage handling system has been plagued with problems since day 1, and they finally threw up their hands and retendered the whole damn thing last year -- hence the RM 100 investment. I'm not sure if the baggage handling system's problems prevented KLCAT's check-out service, but the facilities on the KL Sentral side were built ages ago but have been gathering dust ever since the opening (as you can see from the escalators up to the Putra station if you peek over the railing).

[GWR]

January 09, 2008 18:07 PM

ERL Plans To Extend Its Service To LCCT

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- The Express Rail Link (ERL), the airport express rail network linking the city centre and the KL International Airport (KLIA), will be extended to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) once the terminal has a permanent location.

ERL Sdn Bhd (ELSB) chief executive officer Dr Aminuddin Adnan said Wednesday the company had to put its expansion plans on hold because of the government's plans to relocate the terminal.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said last August that a new LCCT would be built near the KLIA to accommodate 30 million passengers a year while the existing one would be converted to other use.

Aminuddin said that once the government had decided on the permanent location for the LCCT, the company would look into extending its rail network, and the extension services would go hand in hand with the construction of the new terminal.

"If the location of the new LCCT is along the exisiting track, it will take not more than a year to build the ERL facilities to connect to the new LCCT, " he told Bernama after launching ERL's "Ride & Win" contest at KL Sentral here.

However, he added, if the distance was very far away from the existing ERL rail link or there was a problem with the ground treatment, it might take a bit longer.

On plans to extend the ERL services to Seremban, Port Dickson and Melaka, Aminuddin said a study must be carried out first to look at the passenger demands and patterns in those areas because it involved a huge investment by the company.

-- BERNAMA

Non-specific link:
http://www.bernama.com.my/

[GWR]

Good move! Even in the inner sanctum of motorsport, it is now acceptable (& probably sensible) to arrive by train & bus:

More frequent trains on F1 race day

KUALA LUMPUR: The KLIA Transit trains will be plying the route more frequently on March 23 to curb traffic congestion during the F1 Grand Prix here.

The trains will run every 15 minutes between 7am and 1pm and every 12 minutes between 5pm and 8pm on the race day.

The Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and Express Rail Link (ERL) are collaborating for the sixth time since 2003 to offer the KLIA Transit Formula One Transfer Package.

The package includes a two-way KLIA Transit ticket between KL Sentral and KLIA as well as a two-way bus shuttle ticket between the airport and SIC.

“We expect 125,000 spectators at this year’s race and the police are confident of managing traffic. I personally urge fans to use public transportation to avoid getting caught in the foreseeable traffic congestion,” SIC senior general manager Datuk Azmi Murad said, urging locals to buy their tickets and plan their transportation in advance.

Azmi said that for next year, they hope to put together a package that will include tickets for the race.

ERL chief executive officer Dr Aminuddin Adnan said they were capable of handling more passengers compared to last year.

The packages can be purchased at all ERL stations except Salak Tinggi.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/5/nation/20537160&sec=nation

KTM Komuter will also be offering an F1 service:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=20366&postcount=64

[GWR]

ERL chief: We're better than Europe


http://www.nst.com.my/Tuesday/National/2214002/insidepix1
[Photo: NST - The ERL plays an important part in raising Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s image, says Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd chief executive Dr Aminuddin Adnan.]

KUALA LUMPUR: Express Rail Link will help raise Kuala Lumpur International Airport's image as Asia's superior regional hub soon.

Express Rail Link (ERL) Sdn Bhd chief executive Dr Aminuddin Adnan said KLIA's image will be given a boost when ERL offers "check-out" service at KL Sentral's Air Terminal.

He said since ERL started operations in 2002, it had carried more than 20 million passengers.

Aminuddin said this when refuting claims by KTMB Workers Union president Abdul Razak Md Hassan that the service was not practical and cost-effective in a report in Mingguan Malaysia on Sunday when rejecting a proposal to start a bullet train service to Singapore.

"Overall expenditure on the project was RM2 billion, which remained the lowest cost per kilometre, or RM35 million, (20 per cent of the cost of Heathrow Express in London)," he said.
Aminuddin added that the ERL service was 99.7 per cent reliable, which was much better than similar services in Europe or local train services.

He also said the RM35 fee per trip was significantly cheaper than in London which charged STG17 (RM107) for half the distance.

He said the ERL was also environmentally friendly as its trains used electricity.

"Having had 20 million passengers to date, we have significantly reduced the number of road accidents," he said.

Aminuddin said the ERL project was completed on schedule, without cost overruns, and was operating smoothly.

"The achievements of this project clearly reflect the foresight and vision of its founders," he said.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/2214002/Article/index_html