There is always something magical about slow rail travel. You aren’t stuck in a cramped flying metal tube with zero legroom. You get to see and experience the landscape in a way you would have never before. Your journey becomes your destination.
Today’s journey that is not in a flying metal tube is Malaysia’s last sleeper train service. Its proper name is the ‘Ekspress Rakyat Timuran’, which translates to Eastern People’s Express, but it is more commonly known as the ‘Jungle Railway’ to tourists, since it passes through rainforests and limestone formations. It departs from JB Sentral, and goes up to Tumpat, just shy of the Thai border, and back every day.
It is the very last overnight train in the country, and has been aptly described by the BBC as one of ‘Southeast Asia’s greatest train journeys’. Tickets cost around MYR55 (SGD16.55) for a 16 hour journey, great value for what you get.
It is also likely going to disappear soon, with Malaysia’s rapid rail modernisation. The under construction East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is planned to travel at around double the speed of the current train, making this train obsolete. In addition, the double tracking and electrification project further down south, which will allow higher speed trains to run at better frequencies, is also bad news for the train.