Malaysia Transportation: An Overview of KLIA Ekspres Train Services in Kuala Lumpur by Noormah Mohd Noor

Interview with Noormah Mohd Noor, CEO of KLIA Ekspres

What are the challenges that you are currently facing and what have you done to overcome them?

One of the major challenges we have at the moment is the COVID pandemic. Prior to that, we had some challenges in terms of trying to get more ridership, more revenue. We were actually planning to get bigger sales channels all over the world because the majority of our passengers are international passengers. We did quite well on that in 2019. For 2020, we thought we would have a very good year, as well. Unfortunately, because of COVID 19, the whole world suffered, especially for our business because nobody traveled. It is not that people do not want to travel. IATA reported an 80% drop in travelers last year. Because of that, our ridership has been greatly affected. In Malaysia, since March of last year, the government imposed a lockdown control order. We could not move for more than a month and it has been extended a few times. We lost about 90% of the total number of passengers. We have two services: the express non-stop and also KLIA Transit, which stops at three intermediate stations. When the lockdown happened, we had to strategize. We had to really look at how are we going to sustain this because we lost about 80 to 90% of our revenue, whereas our costs are still very high. Running rail is very expensive and the majority of these costs are fixed costs. So, we had to reevaluate the whole business strategy. Even in March, at that time, we did not know whether the lockdown would be very long or very short. There was some prediction that it would be over by 2021 and things would come back to normal. But along the way, things got worse. So, we came up with a projection that things will come back to normal in 2024 and that is a very long period for us to sustain the business. Working without the pre-COVID revenue but the cost of doing business still being very high, we did a lot of cost optimization exercises. I and my team are looking at every line item. We had salary reduction to maintain the number of staff because they are very important and they are very valuable to our organization. We want to make sure that everybody has a job. We reduced working hours to commensurate with that. We managed to bring down the cost by about 40% which is quite substantial. We reviewed the capacity demand in terms of train operation. We went from 237 trips per day to around 40 trips per day now and we combined the services of Ekspres and the KLIA Transit into one service. We also combined these into single platform operation. In Malaysia, the government is very supportive of trying to help businesses to sustain, trying to help people to sustain their livelihood. The Central Bank has even issued instructions to allow the bank to give moratoriums on loan repayment. We are very blessed with very strong support from the government because we are, in a way, like a national project; although, we are fully privatized. We are very proud of the fact that we have very strong support from the government and we have very strong support from the shareholders as well.

What is the background and the journey of KLIA Ekspres?

We have a very good team who have been working very hard to make sure the train service runs on that fantastic, on time performance. We are always very proud of that. It is all because of our people.

The ERL Project (Express Rail Link) was very important for the country because when the government decided to build a new airport it was about 75 kilometers from the city center. It was very important to shorten this travel time and that is why KLIA Ekspres service, the non-stop service, was created. Of course, commuters use the service as well. One of the stops that we have is in Putrajaya which is the new administrative capital of Malaysia. The company was incorporated in 1996 and we are actually a concession holder to finance, construct, operate, and maintain the train services to KLIA. Terminal 2 came about in 2015 because the airport itself was so congested and it was already reaching the capacity of 25 million passengers. In order to support this business, we have a separate organization for the maintenance and operation of the train called E-MAS. Our shareholders include YTL, which is a very big conglomerate in Malaysia, Tabung Haji which is an investment holding company, as well as SIPP Rail and Trisilco. In terms of resources and services, ERL and E-MAS have about 500 employees. 300 are highly specialized engineers. With the operation running 24 hours, the main thing is maintenance being done after the operating hours. We have 18 trains with 12 trains from Siemens and we purchased another six trains in 2016. We run a total of 237 trips per day. We run every 15 minutes for the Ekspres and Transit, and during off peak, we run every 20 minutes. Currently, because the demand is not there, we are running on a combined service with 40 trips per day. For KLIA Ekspres, which is the non-stop service, one of the main features is that we have an airport check in where you can check in your bag in the city center. KL Sentral Station is 57 kilometers from the airport. By train, it takes only 28 minutes to KLIA and 33 minutes to KLIA 2. The check in service is very unique in the sense that there are very few airport rails in the world that offer this. For example, in Vienna they have this service. The most successful one is in Hong Kong. We also have a VIP service which is a door to door service. The commuter service stops at various stations. For tourists or people who travel a lot in within the city center, we have KL Travel Pass where they buy a ticket and then they can get unlimited traveling in the city using the monorail. Discover KL is a product for passengers who want to have a quick look around Kuala Lumpur. They can take the train and hop on hop off bus in the city center. GoCar is a partnership that we have also. There are a lot of requirement for rental car services and renting a car is quite tedious. With GoCar, the car is waiting for you there without any hassle of filling out forms, etc. They will issue a code and you can just open the car and go and it is very reasonable.

What is your strategy for the company?

For our business strategy, we define the short and long term masterpieces plan. We look at what we are doing and focus on the recovery period. We are looking at our domestic commuters and how we can service them better. The most important thing is actually making sure that passengers feel very comfortable and safe taking the train. Everybody must be scanned, we have improved the sanitization on the train, and we do additional sanitation inside the train. We review from time to time when there is a need to increase the service, which actually helps to reduce our electricity costs. We also look at how we can stretch some of these maintenance schedulings. Should we try to defer as much as possible, but without compromising the safety of the services? The safety of the services is really important.

What exactly do you do compared to other non-environmentally friendly modes of transit? Are there some specific advancements or technology that you have implemented?

In 2009, we embarked on a green campaign, encouraging people to take the train. We are the greenest transport because we use electricity. Green travelers help save 44,800 tons of CO2 emission each year when they choose to travel on KLIA Ekspres. Internally, we looked at how we can make the project environmentally sustainable. There was a lot of initiative even in the country at that time, but right now, we have to do some upgrading. Even the train driving has an impact on electricity. So, we looked at how we can reduce the electricity consumption. Electricity is really green technology, but how do we take this further? We had an attempt to use a solar panel; however, we have not implemented that yet. The cost sometimes just does not justify, but we would like to get some investors who are prepared to come in and do that with us. We also want to encourage corporates to use us for corporate travel, similar to in Europe where it has been very successful, especially in Scandinavian countries. Companies there have a policy where they will only allow their staff to travel on the train to support this green campaign and green agenda. We want that to be emulated in Malaysia. We are trying to encourage people to see that and it is easier to do this with the younger generation. In Malaysia, a lot of corporate leaders have their own drivers, they have their own car. But the younger generation is much easier to get involved with being environmentally conscious.

Who is your audience for rail travel now? Do you see that younger generation becoming more of your ridership in the future? Do you see that demographic changing?

We serve every quarter. But, we do see that kind of pattern with the younger generation. In terms of male and female, our ridership used to be very male dominated, but that is also changing in Malaysia.

You are a female CEO in a male dominated industry. Have you faced challenges or opportunities that you would like to share?

My background is in the banking sector. I worked in that sector for 10 years. I was blessed and lucky enough in that this opportunity came and I thought it was a great challenge. The Malaysian government is actually very supportive of the gender agenda in terms of trying to have more females in the workforce. I do not really compete. I just do the best that I can. At the end of the day, people look at how capably you can run an organization. It is actually very challenging, especially in the current situation, for anybody. I think the opportunity in Malaysia is always there. In my case, I was very lucky to be chosen and I continue to steer the company.

What is the vision for KLIA Ekspres for the future, three to five years, in the medium term?

In the short and medium term, we want to go back to where we were before COVID in terms of ridership and revenue. What we are trying to do now is to prepare for this. With this new norm, there is a shift in terms of how people do things: more over the internet, more cashless, etc. Those are the things that we have already started on. For example, we will be among the first to use digital wallet services. Moving forward, what is important is collecting the data and using that data for future marketing purposes or for better strategies. We have just revamped our website and we are very focused on digital transformation. With the internet and with the data we have now, we have a lot to analyze.

Do you have a final message?

We are very proud of our performance. We have 99.7% on time service. Among the airport rail, Hong Kong is the highest at 99.9%. We have a very good team who have been working very hard to make sure the train service runs on that fantastic, on time performance. We are always very proud of that. It is all because of our people.

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