# How Kuala Lumpur's MRT, LRT, Monorail and KTM Lines Connect

> A practical guide to the Klang Valley's rail system — three separate operators running the MRT, LRT, Monorail, KTM Komuter and airport rail — and how to plan a journey that crosses between them.

- Category: transport
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/transport/klang-valley-rail

---

Look at a Klang Valley rail map for the first time and it reads like alphabet
soup — MRT, LRT, KTM, ERL, a pink Monorail line, and since mid-2026 a brand
new Shah Alam Line threaded through it all. The instinct is to treat it as
one train system with a confusing number of colours. It isn't. It is three
separate networks, run by three different companies, that happen to cross
paths at a handful of shared stations. Once you know which company runs
what — and where the free-to-walk transfers actually are — getting around
Kuala Lumpur without a car stops being intimidating and becomes routine.

## Three operators, not one network

The single biggest misconception about Klang Valley rail is that it is run
by one authority. It is not.

**Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd**, a subsidiary of the government-owned Prasarana
Malaysia Berhad, operates the LRT lines, the two MRT lines, the KL
Monorail, and — since June 2026 — the new Shah Alam Line. These are
marketed together under the Rapid KL brand and share a common ticketing
system.

**KTM Berhad (KTMB)**, Malaysia's national railway, separately operates
the **KTM Komuter** commuter rail service, which uses its own conventional
rail tracks rather than the elevated or underground guideways of the LRT
and MRT.

**Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL)** runs the airport rail service —
KLIA Ekspres and KLIA Transit — connecting KL Sentral to Kuala Lumpur
International Airport, again as a separate company with its own tickets.

The practical effect: a Rapid KL travel card or app does not work on KTM
Komuter or the airport train, and vice versa. Where the three systems meet
is at a small number of interchange stations, chiefly KL Sentral.

## The lines, at a glance

| Line | Type | Operator | Route | Length / stations |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kelana Jaya Line | LRT | Rapid Rail | Gombak – Putra Heights | 46.4 km, 37 stations |
| Ampang Line / Sri Petaling Line | LRT | Rapid Rail | Shared trunk through the city centre, branching to Ampang and to Putra Heights via Sri Petaling | 45.1 km, 36 stations combined |
| Shah Alam Line (LRT3) | LRT | Rapid Rail | Bandar Utama – Johan Setia, Klang | 37.8 km; 20 of 25 planned stations open (opened 29 June 2026) |
| Kajang Line | MRT | Rapid Rail | Kwasa Damansara – Kajang | Underground through central KL, elevated elsewhere |
| Putrajaya Line | MRT | Rapid Rail | Kwasa Damansara – Putrajaya Sentral | 57.7 km, 36 stations, 13.5 km underground |
| KL Monorail | Monorail | Rapid Rail | KL Sentral – Titiwangsa | 8.6 km, 11 stations |
| Seremban Line | KTM Komuter | KTMB | Batu Caves – Tampin/Pulau Sebang | 135 km |
| Port Klang Line | KTM Komuter | KTMB | Tanjung Malim – Port Klang | 131 km |
| KLIA Ekspres / KLIA Transit | Airport rail | Express Rail Link | KL Sentral – KLIA | Non-stop express and all-stops variants |

The MRT Kajang Line was the first MRT line to open in the Klang Valley,
running underground beneath the city centre before rising onto elevated
track towards Kajang. The Putrajaya Line, the second MRT line, runs a
longer route with the largest underground stretch of any line in the
network. Both were built and are asset-owned through the wider MRT
programme, with Rapid Rail handling day-to-day operations.

The Shah Alam Line is the newest addition to the map: it opened to
passengers on 29 June 2026, becoming the network's fourth fully automated,
driverless rail system after the Kelana Jaya Line, the Ampang/Sri Petaling
Line and the two MRT lines. Only 20 of its 25 planned stations were open
at launch, with the remainder due by 2028 — so the western end of the
network is still, quite literally, under construction.

## Where the lines actually connect

Because each line was built by a different project team at a different
time, interchange stations are not evenly spread — they cluster around a
few points where the network was deliberately designed, or later
retrofitted, to meet.

**KL Sentral** is the closest thing the Klang Valley has to a single hub.
Both KTM Komuter lines call there, the KL Monorail begins there, and
KLIA Ekspres/KLIA Transit terminate there — putting national rail, city
rail and the airport line within one concourse.

**Masjid Jamek**, near the historic river confluence, is where the Kelana
Jaya Line and the Ampang/Sri Petaling Line cross, making it a key transfer
point for anyone moving between the two older LRT lines.

**Pasar Seni** is the main interchange between the MRT Kajang Line and the
Kelana Jaya LRT line, useful for journeys that start on one system and
need to finish on the other without detouring through KL Sentral.

**Putra**, **Bank Negara** and **Kuala Lumpur** stations are where the two
KTM Komuter lines themselves cross over, letting Komuter passengers switch
between the Seremban and Port Klang Lines without going all the way to
KL Sentral.

## Planning a journey across lines

For any trip confined to Rapid Rail's own network — LRT, MRT, Monorail or
the Shah Alam Line — a single Touch 'n Go card, a contactless bank card
tapped directly at the gate, or a token bought from a station machine
carries a passenger across as many of those lines as the trip needs, with
no separate ticket required at each interchange. The **MyRapid Pulse** app
(Rapid KL's official journey planner) covers exactly this set of services —
MRT, LRT, Monorail, the Sunway BRT and Rapid KL's feeder buses — with live
arrival times and route planning.

The moment a journey needs KTM Komuter or the airport train, that
convenience stops. Both are separate operators with separate fare media,
so a Rapid KL card does not carry over, and the traveller instead buys a
KTM Komuter ticket or an ERL ticket for that leg of the trip, tapping in
and out at that operator's own gates.

### Common mistakes

- **Assuming one card works everywhere.** Touch 'n Go and Rapid KL fare
  media cover the LRT/MRT/Monorail/Shah Alam Line group only — KTM Komuter
  and the airport trains are ticketed separately, even at a shared station
  like KL Sentral.
- **Treating KL Sentral as a single platform.** It is several stations —
  KTM Komuter, Monorail and ERL each have distinct concourses and gates
  under one roof, so a change of line still means walking, not just
  waiting on the same platform.
- **Expecting the Shah Alam Line to be fully built out.** As of its 2026
  opening, five of its 25 planned stations were still under construction,
  so parts of the western route are not yet reachable by rail.
- **Not checking which LRT branch a train is heading to.** The Ampang and
  Sri Petaling Lines share track through the city centre before splitting
  at each end, so boarding the wrong branch train can add a long detour.

## What's next

For context on the city these lines serve, see NegaraKu.md's guide to
[Kuala Lumpur](/en/states/kuala-lumpur) as Malaysia's federal capital, and
[Selangor](/en/states/selangor), the surrounding state that most of the
network — including the new Shah Alam Line — runs through.

## Sources

- Rapid KL — LRT (Kelana Jaya, Ampang and Sri Petaling Lines) — https://myrapid.com.my/bus-train/rapid-kl/lrt/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (MyRapid))
- Rapid KL — MRT Kajang Line — https://myrapid.com.my/bus-train/rapid-kl/kajang-line/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (MyRapid))
- Rapid KL — MRT Putrajaya Line — https://myrapid.com.my/bus-train/rapid-kl/putrajaya-line/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (MyRapid))
- Rapid KL — KL Monorail — https://myrapid.com.my/bus-train/rapid-kl/monorail/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (MyRapid))
- MyRapid Pulse — mobile app — https://myrapid.com.my/pulse/mobile-app/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (MyRapid))
- Rapid Rail — Prasarana subsidiary overview — https://www.prasarana.com.my/rapid-rail/ (Prasarana Malaysia Berhad)
- KTM Komuter — https://www.ktmb.com.my/Komuter.html (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB))
- LRT Shah Alam Line (LRT3) — https://mrt.com.my/lrt3/ (Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp))
- Current rail services — land transport infrastructure — https://www.mot.gov.my/en/land/infrastructure/current-rail-services (Ministry of Transport Malaysia)
- KLIA Ekspres / KLIA Transit — https://www.kliaekspres.com/en (Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL))

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