Getting to and out of KL by train

I have to attend a supplementary course as planned out in my Individual Coaching Plan (ICP) so that I can close the gaps identified in my Accelerated Capability Development (ACD) gap assessment. This training is to be held at Legend Hotel KL. I was googling for this hotel, and then I realized, hey! actually I’ve been there for a training back in 2007 (I think). This hotel is near The Mall and if you are taking the train, you can get on the star lrt line to get there.

Actually, this entry is really not about my training, rather it is about the train system around KL. To me, this system is a very-confusing-tangled-up-bunch-of-railways. Especially to those using it for the first time. The different names are already a messing-up-my-brain bunch of names. In KL, we have LRT (putra and star, star splits into two lines), monorail, komuter (komuter has 2 different service lines) and ERL (Err…I didn’t miss anything right?). If you asked me (obviously nobody asked me but I want to give my 2 cents anyway, or 3 or 4 cents at that), these different names are really unnecessary.

Obviously, these names are to mark the different operators and the different lines of service. But to a layman like me, errrr I couldn’t care less!! Why can’t there be only one company who takes care of the customer services for these train operators, so the customers like us don’t have to watch out for different customer care line for each operators? Hahaha~ I am lazy, I know that and this is not a strong argument. If this is to be done, then I bet the main issue will be “Who’s gonna pay this customer services company” then somebody will say “let’s split evenly between all train operators” then someone will remarks “Errkk…but we are not the biggest operator. we have to split according to the company’s size” the another someone will respond “no…no..no…we have to split according to the largest usage per day” “no…no…no by track length” blah…blah…yada…yada… waste of time.

The different names though is another thing. I do wish that we have simple name like Seremban Line, KLIA Line, Ampang Line and drop the monorail, putra, star and the rest. Simply because I don’t want to know. Maybe the whole lot can be call KL train system (or something else) – Ampang Line. Simple. (to me)

However, if you are prepared beforehand, it is really not that hard. The info are all over the internet including the maps for these train, its station and interchange stations. I get the map below from this web site and I’ve been using it for a few times mainly to find out where I have to stop in order to change to another train service / line.

Hope that this map can help someone to survive the madness of KL train jungle. :)

p/s: I’ve checked that this map is not copyrighted. However, if this is not the case, please do contact me and I’ll be glad to remove this map from my blog. I’ll then draw my own map on the KL train system and get it copyrighted. hoho~