Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Facelift for Borneo's only railway system

By Jaswinder Kaur

Kota Kinabalu - BORNEO’S only railway system is getting a facelift and it is not coming to the end of the line as some may have thought.

After five years of studies, it has been found that the 134km track that runs from Tanjung Aru to Tenom on the western part of Sabah, is still needed for some 500,000 commuters, a bulk of whom are from rural areas.

With RM334.8 million in federal funding, the Sabah Railway Department is upgrading tracks, buying new trains and more importantly setting up 22 level crossings.

Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan who made the announcement yesterday said there were 149 level crossings, including a number of illegal ones, which had led to fatalities.

"We are going to have 22 level crossings along the line which will either have gates or traffic lights to warn motorists. This is all part of upgrading work which will be done in the short term of about three years," he said.

Courtesy of New Straits Times

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