KUALA LUMPUR: Tickets for all modes of interstate travel are selling like hotcakes as voters are eager to return home for the general election (GE15) on Nov 19.
States such as Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang have announced Nov 18 as a state public holiday while the higher education ministry is allowing five days’ leave for students from Nov 17 to 21 to encourage them to vote.
Checks on various bus ticketing websites showed tickets for buses going to the northeast and northwest had been sold out.
A spokesman for Sani Express said bus tickets for the period between Nov 16 and 21 had been sold out as voters had bought their tickets as soon as the polling date was announced on Oct 20.
He said the company intended to provide extra buses, based on demand.
“Looking at our system, we will add at least one bus each for travellers going north and to the east coast.”
Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) is providing additional train services to the east coast as well as for the ETS service to the west coast. A total of 716 tickets have been offered for the extra train services to the east coast and 2,520 tickets on the ETS.
KTMB said up till Nov 9, brisk sales had been reported for the KL-Ipoh (93% sold), KL-Butterworth (83% sold), KL-Padang Besar (77% sold), KL-Tumpat (96% sold) trips.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines will be increasing the overall number of domestic flights from 26 to 44. It is also planning to increase capacity by using the wide-body A330 aircraft on several routes.
Group CEO Izham Ismail said since the launch of “Jom Balik Mengundi” on Oct 20, bookings on Malaysia Airlines had surged by 7% over their daily average, with nearly 70,000 passengers having booked their flights.
“We have also increased the capacity by 30% to main domestic destinations within Peninsular Malaysia, such as Penang and Kota Bharu, as well as Sabah and Sarawak.”
He said the airline would be making available 140,000 seats for GE15.