# Getting Between Cities in Malaysia: Trains, Buses and Flights Compared

> How to travel between Malaysian cities without a car — KTM's electric ETS trains on the west coast, the express bus network that reaches almost everywhere else, and why domestic flights are not optional but essential once Sabah and Sarawak come into the picture.

- Category: transport
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/transport/intercity-travel

---

Fly to Kuching, take a bus to Kuantan, or catch a train to Butterworth —
three trips within the same country that work in three completely
different ways. Malaysia has no single "intercity travel" system. It has
three parallel networks, and which one a traveller reaches for depends
entirely on where they are starting from and where they are headed.

## The west coast belongs to the train

KTMB's **Electric Train Service (ETS)** is the backbone of west-coast
travel. It is a fast, electric-powered service running along the
electrified double track of the West Coast Line.

For years, ETS covered the peninsula's northern and central west coast —
Padang Besar, Butterworth, Ipoh, KL Sentral — but stopped short of Johor.
That changed with the completion of the Gemas–Johor Bahru electrified
double-tracking project: ETS services began reaching **JB Sentral** in
December 2025, and KTMB doubled the KL Sentral–JB Sentral service to
eight daily trips from 2026. For the first time, an electric train runs
the entire west coast, from the Thai border to the edge of Singapore.

ETS itself splits into three tiers — **Platinum** (fewest stops,
fastest), **Gold** (more stops, mid-range fares) and **Silver**
(almost all-stop, the cheapest) — so the choice within ETS is really
about how many towns a traveller is willing to stop at along the way.

## What ETS doesn't cover — and what does

ETS only runs the West Coast Line. Everything else on KTMB's network is
carried by **KTM Intercity**, a separate diesel-hauled service.
Intercity covers routes ETS does not touch: the East Coast Line towards
Tumpat and Kuala Lipis, JB Sentral–Tampin, and the short cross-border hop
from JB Sentral to Woodlands in Singapore. It offers Premier, Superior
and Economy classes, plus overnight sleeper berths on its longer runs —
a genuinely different product from ETS's fast, seated, single-class-per-
tier commute.

Between the two services, rail covers a meaningful slice of the
peninsula. It still leaves large gaps — much of the east coast, and
most smaller towns off the main lines — for the third network to fill.

## Express buses fill in the rest

Where rail stops, Malaysia's express bus network takes over, and it
covers far more ground than the trains do. Buses reach towns the railway
never touches, run more frequently on many routes, and connect directly
across borders to Singapore and southern Thailand.

The hub for this network in the capital is **Terminal Bersepadu Selatan
(TBS)**, an integrated transport terminal at Bandar Tasik Selatan that
also connects on foot to KTM Komuter, LRT and airport rail services —
so a traveller can land at KL Sentral, ride the rail link to Bandar
Tasik Selatan, and board a long-distance coach without leaving the
public transport system. TBS anchors southbound and cross-border
services in particular, with other terminals around the Klang Valley
handling buses heading north and east. For a traveller without a car,
the express bus is often the only direct option to a smaller town that
neither ETS nor KTM Intercity serves.

## East Malaysia: flying is not a luxury, it's the default

Everything above describes Peninsular Malaysia. Sabah and Sarawak sit
across the South China Sea, with no bridge, causeway or rail link
joining them to the peninsula — so every trip between the two halves of
the country is by air (or, much more slowly, by sea). Within Sabah and
Sarawak themselves, the interior's terrain and river geography mean many
towns have never been connected by road at all.

That is why domestic flights matter here in a way they do not on the
peninsula. Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia carry the bulk of city-to-city
traffic — Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu or Kuching, and between the
larger Bornean cities themselves. Beneath that sits a **Rural Air
Service (RAS)**, a government-subsidised public service obligation that
flies smaller aircraft into remote airports and short
take-off-and-landing strips serving interior communities. Since
1 January 2026, this network — previously operated by MASwings — has
been run by **AirBorneo**, which inherited the Rural Air Service role
across Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

### Common mistakes

- **Assuming the whole peninsula is on the ETS map.** ETS only runs the
  West Coast Line; a trip to the east coast needs KTM Intercity or a bus.
- **Not budgeting extra time for East Malaysia connections.** With no
  land link to the peninsula, every Sabah/Sarawak leg of a trip needs its
  own flight booked and timed separately.
- **Overlooking KTM Intercity as "just the old train."** It is the only
  rail option on several routes, including the only route to Singapore
  by train via JB Sentral–Woodlands, and the only rail sleeper option in
  the country.

## What's next

For getting around once you've arrived in the capital, see NegaraKu.md's
guide to the [Klang Valley's rail network](/en/transport/klang-valley-rail),
which covers KTM Komuter, LRT, MRT and the airport rail line within
Kuala Lumpur itself. For point-to-point trips that don't fit a train or
bus timetable, [Grab and e-hailing](/en/transport/e-hailing-grab) is
NegaraKu.md's guide to the app-based alternative.

## Sources

- Electric Train Service (ETS) Timetable & Time Schedule In Malaysia — https://www.ktmb.com.my/ets.html (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB))
- Train Route / Map In Malaysia — https://www.ktmb.com.my/MapsAndRoute.html (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB))
- KTM Intercity — https://www.ktmb.com.my/intercity.html (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB))
- KL Sentral-JB Sentral ETS services double to eight daily trips starting 2026 — https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/12/16/kl-sentral-jb-sentral-ets-services-double-to-eight-daily-trips-starting-2026/202118 (Malay Mail)
- Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) — https://tbsbts.gohub.com.my/ (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan)
- MASwings Transitions to AirBorneo on 1 Jan 2026 — https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/content/mag/en/MAG-media-centre/news-releases/2025/maswings-transition-airborneo-2026.html (Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG))

---
Source of truth: https://github.com/negaraku-md/NegaraKu.md
License: CC BY-SA 4.0