Sabah Railway Department is actively planning to revive its freight carriage services, as a mode of low cost logistics.
Currently, with the price of RM4.50, customers can have their 60 kg parcel freighted between Kota Kinabalu (KK) and Tenom (around 137 km). The railway also serves Papar and Beaufort along the line.
In the fleet, there are three sets of Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) with two of them serving KK-Beaufort line and one serving Beaufort-Tenom line, while another locomotive engine serves as a backup.
There are two departures daily each for KK-Beaufort (7:45am and 5:00pm) and Beaufort-KK (5:00am and 11:00am) passenger train, which can be hybrid with cargo carriages.
Lanslide cause Railway Service Disruption
Due to the recent landslide, a stretch of railroad between Pangi and Tenom was damaged and disrupted the railway service. It is expected the service to Tenom will resume by 2024.
Researchers suggested that with more roads built in the past decades, many industrial players opted for lorries for their logistics needs.
Of course, one of the main reason why freight train become less popular is due to limited destinations, as the railway only serves one line, i.e. Western Sabah Rail Line.
However, Western Sabah Rail Line covers Sembulan, Tanjung Aru, Putatan, Kinarut, Kawang, Papar, Kimanis, Bongawan, Membakut, Beaufort, Saliwangan Baru, Halogilat, Rayoh, Pangi, Tenom and Melalap, it may carry daily supplies from cities to the rural area while freighting agriculture products on its return trip.
Reviving Beaufort-Weston Line
Sabah Railway Department is also mulling to upgrade and revive Beaufort-Weston rail line which now has a weight limitation.
Meanwhile, Sabah Railway Department also has a card in their deck to revive and operate the currently defunct steam-engine North Borneo Railway for tourism purposes.
When asked about Trans-Borneo railway, the spokesperson of Sabah Railway Department said a feasibility study is still underway.
“In principle, if railways become more popular and widely accessible, the maintenance cost of existing road systems would be greatly reduced because there would be lesser and lesser heavy-load lorries on the road.”