Too many lorries, too few trains: Malaysia’s self-inflicted logistics crisis

By Rosli Khan

With the recent spate of fatal lorry accidents, it is easy to blame everyone else except the government.

Yet, it is clear we are all looking at symptoms rather than root causes.

Excuses like the lack of GPS devices, brake failure, speeding, drowsy drivers and others are just that – symptoms. The root cause has gone unspoken.

The truth is many of those lorries should not be on the road at all – not if our railways were playing their rightful role in transporting bulky, heavy goods.

As a result, too many lorries now clog our highways, carrying loads that should be transported by rail.

For decades, there has been no serious effort to shift freight from road to rail – a move that would make our roads safer and less congested.

Does this have anything to do with our penchant for roads and highways? Or are the interests of toll highway operators subtly driving this agenda? Would they lose too much revenue if these loads shift to rail?

Or, as I have often asked, why does our rail system utilisation continue to remain abysmally low, despite massive government injection into double-tracking and electrification.

Is this by design? If not, why aren’t more freight trains taking over these loads?

Is Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) to blame?

It is convenient to point fingers at KTMB’s shrinking freight market share – but that misses the forest for the trees. KTMB is not underperforming due to inefficiency or a lack of effort.

So, why isn’t KTMB buying more locomotives and freight wagons to haul the materials now choking our roads?

Presently, goods travel by road all the way from the Thai border at Bukit Kayu Hitam to Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Malacca and Johor. Why is this allowed?

Rail economics tell us that it can offer better and cheaper cost per km than road freight for distances of 200km and beyond.

Why is no one looking into this to reduce logistics costs and better returns on investment, and to produce safer roads and highways? Or are the toll revenues from these behemoths simply too valuable to disrupt?

I believed the real problem is structural.

Here is how it works, or rather, does not.

The original KTMB has been split into two unequal parts:

• Railway Asset Corporation (RAC) owns all railway infrastructure: tracks, land, stations, depots, signalling systems, even the rolling stock.
• KTMB is just the operator, running trains on infrastructure it neither owns nor controls.

This creates four major constraints for KTMB:

•  It cannot invest in infrastructure upgrades or expansion.
• It lacks strategic control over network planning and logistics development.
• It cannot finance or build new freight terminals or sidings – even when the demand is obvious.
• Sometimes, it cannot even pay its own operating costs without government assistance.

The real question is how can any rail operator grow under such a disjointed, toothless structure?

RAC holds the assets but has no operational or commercial stake in rail logistics. It has no incentive to expand or improve freight services.

KTMB, meanwhile, is left trying to run a business without the tools, hardware, autonomy or the capital it needs to compete. Wrong structure, poor performance.

No rail operator anywhere thrives under such fragmentation.

Enforceable policy needed

Successful rail systems – in the EU, Japan and even China – are built on integrated models, where infrastructure and operations fall under a single accountable body.

No doubt, Malaysia needs a strong, enforceable policy that prioritises rail for long-haul and hazardous freight.

This means a regulatory framework that mandates, not merely encourages, modal shift.

Otherwise, we will keep making the same costly mistakes – watching roads crumble under freight they were never meant to bear, and witnessing fatal crashes day after day, while our railways remain criminally underused.

All while the solution sits in plain sight – derailed not by complexity but by a chronic lack of political will and a legacy policy built to fail.

The real issue lies in a flawed institutional setup – a Dr Mahathir Mohamad-era creation, modelled after the UK’s disastrous rail privatisation.

We have copied a broken system. More on that next time. – Free Malaysia Today

Rosli Khan, a traffic planning consultant, has a masters in transport planning and a PhD in transport economics from Cranfield University in England. 

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

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