Chief of the SRT governor’s office Ekkarat Sriarayanphong said this was agreed in principle during the 42nd Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd-SRT joint conference in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, last week.

The SRT cancelled the daily express service between Bangkok and Butterworth in 2016, instead operating only to Padang Besar at the Malaysia-Thailand border.

Ekkarat said a joint working group will be established to consider opening the extended train route from Bangkok Central Station to Padang Besar and then to Butterworth.

“The initial phase will be a trial run for six months,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He said SRT and KTMB also agreed to extend the route of the Malaysian holiday excursion train, My Sawasdee, which currently stops at Hat Yai. It will be extended to Surat Thani at a date to be discussed later.

Currently, My Sawadee operates only on holidays, taking passengers from Kuala Lumpur and stopping at Hat Yai, a popular destination among Malaysian visitors.