MB: Revive Seremban-PD railway line for tourism

SEREMBAN: The state government wants the federal authorities to rehabilitate the 39km Seremban-Port Dickson railway line – the third to be built in the country – which has not been in use for almost three years.

Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan hoped that the Land Transport Commis-sion (SPAD) would consider this, as it had the potential to boost tourism in Port Dickson.

“We were told that it would be costly to build the line all over again. The line had been there for more than 100 years,” he said after performing a ground-breaking ceremony of a new diesel processing plant at the Shell refinery here.

Mohamad said the state authorities had plans to start a tourist train, linking Seremban and Port Dickson four years ago but this had to be shelved as the tracks were deemed unsafe.

The Seremban-Port Dickson line had been closed since July 2008 when a freight train transporting diesel from a refinery in Port Dickson to Ipoh derailed.

In the incident at Kampung Pulai near Rantau, the train’s 14 wagons transporting liquefied petroleum gas and diesel jumped the tracks.

Prior to that, the line was used exclusively by two refineries in Port Dickson to transport their products to other parts of the country.

Passenger train services between Seremban and Port Dickson stopped in the mid-1970s.

The opening of the Seremban-Port Dickson Highway in 1997 also allowed companies here to transport their products faster via road.

Keretapi Tanah Melayu had been reluctant to repair the tracks due to the high costs involved and it was also not a profitable venture.

Mohamad said although the project to rehabilitate the line was not listed under the 10th Malaysia Plan, he expressed hope that this would be considered.

“Since Port Dickson has been gazetted as a Wellness Zone, a Bandar Tentera Darat (army town) as well as Pantai Peranginan Negara (country’s popular beach spot), we should make it easier for people to get here,” he added. – The Star Online-