Selangor Government should flex its muscles to avoid ECRL becoming white elephant

Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, ADUN for Damansara Utama on Thursday 30 March 2017 in Shah Alam.

Selangor Government should flex its muscles to avoid East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) from becoming an expensive white elephant.

The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project will have approximately 600km of electrified double-tracking lines and will link Port Klang to Kuantan then all the way passing through East Coast cities to Wakaf Baru. Approximately 80km of the 600km ECRL is in Selangor.

The new network will not only connect the populations of the east coast to Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, it will also connect ports on the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, i.e Kuantan Port and Port Klang. Nevertheless, the cost of ECRL project will affect the price of the passengers’ train tickets as well as the cargo’s freight fees - the higher the project cost, the more expensive the train tickets and freight fees; or the government needs to subsidize it to keep the price competitive through tax payers monies. Either way the people will eventually need to pay for it.