Malaysian Cabinet approves East Coast Rail Link extension to Malaysia-Thailand border

China News Service, Kuala Lumpur, October 20 (Reporter Liu Yuying) Malaysian Transport Minister Luk Siew Fook said at the 2026 Asian Transportation Expo on the 20th that the Malaysian Cabinet has approved the extension of the East Coast Railway from Kota Bharu by about 32 kilometers to the Malaysian border town of Landau Panjang in Malaysia. The project is currently in the technical research and land acquisition stages.

The Malaysian East Coast Railway is a flagship project of the high-quality “Belt and Road” joint construction between China and Malaysia. When answering reporters' questions that day, Loke Siu Fook said that during Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar's visit to China in September this year, Malaysia and China reached a principled consensus on the extension of the East Malaysia Railway, and the plan was subsequently submitted to the Malaysian Cabinet and approved.

He said that the extension line is expected to take about four and a half years to complete. The first two years will mainly involve technical assessment and land acquisition. Construction can only start after the land acquisition from the state government and land owners along the line is completed.

Loke Siu Fook also said that the Gombak to Kota Bharu section of the East Malaysia Railway is scheduled to open in mid-December, and passengers and freight will operate simultaneously, with a 30% discount on economy class fares in the first month. As the section from Gombak to Port Klang is still under construction, the freight connection to Port Klang is expected to take about a year.