KUALA LUMPUR – Public transportation tickets are flying off the rack as voters are eager to return home in order to fulfil their duty as responsible citizens by going to the polls on November 19 in the country’s 15th general election (GE15).
States such as Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Penang have announced November 18 as a public holiday, while the Higher Education Ministry is allowing five days’ leave for students from November 17 to 21 to encourage them to vote.
Monitoring of various commercial bus ticketing websites showed that routes towards the northeast and northwest territories of Malaysia are sold out.
A spokesman for Sani Express said their bus tickets have been sold out for the dates between November 16 to 21 as voters had bought their tickets as early as the announcement of the polling date on October 20 to avoid missing out from voting, but they will provide extra buses according to demand.
“Looking at our system, we will add a bus for the north, and the same for the east (coast). Glad to say, we will add one bus to each destination,” he said.
However, other alternatives are available, albeit with limited seats, as Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) is providing additional special train services to the east coast and electric train services (ETS), with 716 tickets offered for special train services and 2,520 tickets for ETS train services.
“According to the latest data on ETS and KTM ticket sales until November 9, 93% of tickets have been sold for routes from Kuala Lumpur heading to Ipoh, Perak; 83% for Butterworth, Penang; 77% for Padang Besar, Perlis; and 96% of tickets for routes from Kuala Lumpur to Tumpat, Kelantan,” KTMB said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines Bhd will be increasing overall flights from 26 to 44 flights, as well as 16 to 24 domestic flight services, all upgraded to use wide-body A330 aircraft on several routes involving Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak.
Its group chief executive officer Izham Ismail said that since the launch of the “Jom Balik Mengundi” programme on October 20, bookings on Malaysia Airlines have surged by 7% over their daily average, with nearly 70,000 passenger bookings.
“We have also increased the capacity by 30% to main domestic destinations within Peninsular Malaysia such as Penang and Kota Baru, as well as Sabah and Sarawak.
“140,000 seats have been made available by optimising all of our fleets to support both air transport movements via Malaysia Airlines during GE15,” he said in a statement today. – Bernama, November 12, 2022
